« Friday 5: Bad Boys... whatcha gonna do? | Main | Marriage and Government »
September 30, 2005
Arnie Wields the Veto Pen
Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill today to allow gay marriage in California. I applaud him for doing so, even though I am in favor of gay marriage. This goes back to the same issues that the San Francisco mayor faced last year. It's about the rule of law.
Schwarzenegger said he would leave the issue of same-sex marriage to the courts and voters, who approved a ballot measure five years ago defining marriage as between a man and woman.
"I do not believe the legislature can reverse an initiative approved by the people of California," he said in a written statement. "This bill simply adds confusion to a constitutional issue. If the ban of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, this bill is not necessary. If the ban is constitutional, this bill is ineffective."
This was simple political opportunism by the Democratic legislature, and IMO did no favors to the cause of gay marriage. If they had been serious about it, they would have been organizing an initiative vote to repeal California's existing constitutional ban.
Meanwhile, I'm gearing up to vote no on Texas' proposed constitutional ban in November.
Politics by Dan at September 30, 2005 10:21 AM
Comments
I'm torn on this one. The govt has no real business in regulating marriages. Marriage is a religious union usually, common law marriage is a made up thing to give people the same rights under law that "married" people get. Inheritance and and tax breaks, stuff like that. The govt has not always tried to regulate marriages but somewhere down the line they came up with a scheme and provided incentives for people to get married.
I looked it up and I found this tidbit
The first marriage licenses were issued in 1856 in Ohio to interracial couples. This was needed because common law marriage is a contract between two persons with rights. At that time even free blacks did not have recognition that their rights existed and could not therefore enter into contracts on an equal footing with whites. So permission was sought and the marriage license was born.The marriage license did not become universal and widespread until 1910.
So really the govt has no right to stop gays or anyone from getting married since marriage is NOT a government's business.
Posted by: satyr at September 30, 2005 10:35 PM
I'm torn on this one but honestly the govt has no real business in regulating marriage. Marriage is a religious union usually, common law marriage is a made up thing to give people the same rights under law that "married" people get. Inheritance and and tax breaks, stuff like that. The govt has not always tried to regulate marriages but somewhere down the line they came up with a scheme and provided incentives for people to get married. I looked it up and I found this tidbit
The first marriage licenses were issued in 1856 in Ohio to interracial couples. This was needed because common law marriage is a contract between two persons with rights. At that time even free blacks did not have recognition that their rights existed and could not therefore enter into contracts on an equal footing with whites. So permission was sought and the marriage license was born.The marriage license did not become universal and widespread until 1910.
So really the govt has no right to stop gays or anyone from getting married since marriage is NOT a governments business.
Posted by: satyr at September 30, 2005 10:37 PM
Even w/o the license, though, government had some regulating power over marriage going well back to England, since it enforced (and defined) the "common law" of common law marriages.
Posted by: Dan at October 1, 2005 09:18 AM