Washington state approves gay marriage

Kal'Stang said:

You're right. There is nothing in the Constitution directly about marriage. However there have been supreme court cases that have stated that marriage is a fundamental right. And then there is the 9th Amendment which states...

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

This means that there are rights available to the People that the Constitution does not cover. Indeed it was specifically put in the original Bill of Rights because many believed that by writing the Bill of Rights it would put a limit on the Rights of People by not addressing all of the Peoples Rights. In this case marriage is one of those rights.

Many people seem to either not know this fact, or ignore it.

Oh and I'm quite sure that Nuclear Warheads and planes were not in the founders minds either. But they did know that times change, social norms change and technology changes. This is why they made the Constitution vague in many areas. It is also why the Consitution is considered a Living Document. That "living" part is not just because it is still being followed. But because just like living things, the Constitution can be changed.

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Again when the 9th amendment was signed I know the originators were not taking about marriage be it straight or gay...............

BooRadley said:

It doesn't matter if they thought of the specific issue of gay marriage, which I'm sure they didn't. They thought of the overall concept of equal protection of the law, and so far, one court after the next has found that this applies to discriminatory laws on marriage. The fact that you don't like it doesn't change the fact that it's a 14th amendment issues, as has been found in several state's courts, appeals courts and supreme courts.

To think you know more about the laws than all those judges do is your right, of course, but that doesn't make it a rational assumption.

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I can tell you if they thought at the time that this amendment would cover gay marriage they never would have signed it..........Maybe that is what you lefties should do if gay marriage is so popular in this country start a constitutional amendment to do it..........

disneydude said:

Isn't that exactly what you are doing....trying to flaunt your heterosexuality and push it down people's throats? See Navy......how about living by the Golden rule for a change. Why expect other people to live according to your views......if we did that....we would all have to run around bragging about boinking other people's wives while their husbands are off serving our country on active duty.
Is that your view of "family values" and morality?

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I am sure you have attended many disgusting gay rights parades my left wing friend. I don't know how you can get any more disgusting then that

Navy Pride said:

Again when the 9th amendment was signed I know the originators were not taking about marriage be it straight or gay...............

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So when the Second amendment was signed, did they mean to include automatic weapons or maybe nuclear bombs?

Do you believe that the signers ever meant for women or black people to ever have any of those Amendments cover them, as well as white men?

Who are you to say what the signers of any Amendments believed should be covered and why we should consider what they would have said about this situation? Personally, I believe if many of those founders of America were introduced to the country we have today, one of the last things they would be complaining about is same sex couples being covered under Amendments making them more equal.

Navy Pride said:

Again when the 9th amendment was signed I know the originators were not taking about marriage be it straight or gay...............

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It doesn't matter if our Founding Fathers were thinking specifically about marriage or not. They wrote the 9th amendment so as to cover all rights that were not enumerated in the Constitution. And anyone without an agenda knows that marriage is a fundamental right (even those with an agenda knows this...they just won't admit it because it goes against what they want). As such it falls under and is protected by the 9th Amendment of our Constitution.

Again, the US Constitution was designed specifically so that it would work no matter the times, it is not a static document. And while it is certainly important to consider the Founding Fathers words they do not cover everything that is possible today. Mainly because they couldn't even concieve of it. Again that is why they made many parts of the Constitution vauge and why they made the 9th Amendment.

Now you can deny this all that you want, you can refuse to admit to the truth of the situation. But facts are facts and there is nothing that you can do to change cold hard facts. Marriage IS a fundemental right. And marriage, being a fundemental right, IS covered under the 9th Amendment of the Constitution.