Contrary to those who are sure to bash the Iowa Supreme Court for going against "the will of the majority", the court's ruling to uphold same-gender marriage is, in fact, a demonstration of the proper function of government, which is to uphold individual rights.
We live in a republic, not a democracy, and individual rights - if they are to have any meaning at all - must be inviolable. To allow the rights of the individual to be subject to the whim of the majority is to enforce a tyranny of the majority.
The only way to guarantee the freedom of every citizen is to guarantee the rights of every citizen.
Those who complain about judges going against "the will of the people" are enemies of freedom who are attacking judges for performing precisely the function which a republic based on individual rights demands of them.
Four Random Things
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*A Friday Hodgepodge*
*This will be my last post for 2024 due to my yearly blogging break. I plan
to return on January 6, 2025.I hope you have a merry Ch...
1 day ago
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Iowa Supreme Court said gay-YES!
ReplyDeleteSee the actual video.
video
I haven't followed this particular court case. What was the issue legally?
ReplyDeleteI read in one news report (which was otherwise not informative) that the state supreme court's decision was unanimous. Is that true? If so, isn't that very unusual -- unless the particular issue at stake was a technical issue or a straight-forward reading and application of the state or federal constitution?
Burgess - I was going to refer you to the website of Americans United for Separation of Church and State but I can't get to their website - www.au.org - right now for some reason - probably too much traffic. I think they have the actual decision on their site.
ReplyDeleteHowever, on checking out the site of Lambda Legal - the group that actually defended the case - I find that they have the decision on their site - http://www.lambdalegal.org/our-work/in-court/decisions/varnum_ia_20090403_supreme-court-decision.html - as well as info about their defense of the case - http://www.lambdalegal.org/our-work/in-court/cases/varnum.html.
Their announcement regarding the decision is at http://www.lambdalegal.org/publications/articles/iowa-victory.html