Quick Take: What's at Stake in the Prop 8 Debate?

If upheld, the 9th Circuit's ruling means that a local court can create a nationally-mandated "civil right", beyond the power of courts to rule upon, entirely through procedural tricks.

by Rod D. Martin
March 26, 2013

Several people have asked me what the issues are as the Supreme Court hears arguments regarding California's Proposition 8, by which the people amended their state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman (i.e., the position of pretty much the entire civilized world for the last couple thousand years or so).

My apologies to Saudi princes who choose -- with the full blessing of the Koran -- to have harems.  Somehow modern liberals have decided that this is not an affront to the dignity of all women, but rather a "choice", one of the few they allow these days (Big Gulps, no; tobacco, no; freedom of religion, no; choose your own doctor, no; kill your baby in the womb, yes).  Who knew?

Anyway, the main issues are:

1. The legal abolition of the long-held societal position that children ideally should be raised by a father as well as a mother;

2. The lack of any legal distinction between same-sex marriage and polygamy, polyandry, adult inces…