Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Marriage predates government and civil authorities.

Via Cousin Joel

 http://tnvalleytalks.hoop.la/fileSendAction/fcType/0/fcOid/283751163786679485/filePointer/283751163786679496/fodoid/283751163786679493/imageType/LARGE/inlineImage/true/Marriage_OneMan_OneWoman-OUTLINE-1.jpg


 
With the release of its two rulings on same-sex “marriage” today, the United States Supreme Court has lost its legitimacy as an arbiter of the Constitution and the rule of law. Today marks the death of the Court’s legacy, because the decision on the Federal Defense of Marriage Act defies logic and is a pure invention of a handful of Justices.
 
As much as pro-homosexual activists will crow over today’s announcements, rest assured that the battle over marriage in America is far from over!  In fact, Liberty Counsel, joined by well over 200 Christian leaders representing tens of millions of Americans believers like you, is still boldly proclaiming “No court can make marriage into what it can never be”!
 
Please see my important update on the Supreme Court’s rulings and what we’re doing in response – Mat.
 
 
Today, the Supreme Court crossed the line and delegitimized its authority by striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). 
 
The Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) also released their opinions on California’s Proposition 8 state marriage amendment (Prop 8).  
 
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his dissent on the DOMA ruling that the Court’s errors, both in explaining its jurisdiction and its decision, “spring from the same diseased root: an exalted conception of the role of this institution in America.”
 
Obviously disgusted with the majority’s hubris and its unfounded opinion, Scalia wrote…
 
”I promise you this: The only thing that will ‘confine’ the Court’s holding is its sense of what it can get away with.”
 
In other words, the Supreme Court will retain only the authority the People give it.  Its authority lies only in the fact that the People deem its decisions legitimate, and the DOMA decision clearly is not!
 
++How the Court ruled on DOMA.
 
Justice Kennedy, writing the DOMA decision under an Equal Protection rationale, strikes down Section 3 of DOMA, which defines marriage as one man and one woman for purposes of federal law and federal benefits, specifically joint federal tax returns, Social Security survivor benefits, and federal employee health insurance and medical benefits. 
 
But not at issue in this ruling are the other parts of DOMA, including the section that says states may define their own marriage policy and are not required to accept a sister state’s same-sex marriage. 
 
“DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled to recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty,” wrote Kennedy. 
 
++Justice Scalia’s dissent literally scolded the majority. 
 
Writing for the minority in the DOMA ruling, Justice Scalia wrote this in his scathing dissent…
 
“It is an assertion of judicial supremacy over the people’s Representatives in Congress and the Executive. It envisions a Supreme Court standing (or rather enthroned) at the apex of government, empowered to decide all constitutional questions, always and everywhere “primary” in its role. This image of the Court would have been unrecognizable to those who wrote and ratified our national charter.” 
 
Liberty Counsel concurs with Justice Scalia’s dissent, as do the more than 200 Christian leaders who have affirmed our powerful Marriage Solidarity Statement.  
 
++The Court’s ruling on Proposition 8.
 
Regarding the Prop 8 case, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the 5-4 decision of the Court, dismissed the case on standing, meaning that the Court lacks jurisdiction to reach the merits because the Prop 8 Interveners lacked standing to litigate the case, after the California State Attorney General ceased defending it following the lower federal district court opinion. 
 
This means that the lower court decision governing the Northern District of California stands. Thus, only the decision striking down Prop 8 by the lower district court remains in effect. The remaining parts of California are unaffected. No doubt, litigation will ensue in the Southern and Middle Districts of California.
 
++The High Court is now engaged in raw judicial activism.
 
Justice O’Connor, writing in the early 1990’s case of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Penn. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 864-869 (1992), candidly acknowledged: 
 
“The root of American governmental power is revealed most clearly in the instance of the power conferred by the Constitution upon the Judiciary of the United States and specifically upon this Court. As Americans of each succeeding generation are rightly told, the Court cannot buy support for its decisions by spending money and, except to a minor degree, it cannot independently coerce obedience to its decrees. 
 
The Court's power lies, rather, in its legitimacy, a product of substance and perception that shows itself in the people's acceptance of the Judiciary as fit to determine what the Nation's law means and to declare what it demands.
 
The underlying substance of this legitimacy is of course the warrant for the Court's decisions in the Constitution and the lesser sources of legal principle on which the Court draws… 
 
The Court must take care to speak and act in ways that allow people to accept its decisions on the terms the Court claims for them, as grounded truly in principle, not as compromises with social and political pressures having, as such, no bearing on the principled choices that the Court is obliged to make. 
 
Thus, the Court's legitimacy depends on making legally principled decisions under circumstances in which their principled character is sufficiently plausible to be accepted by the Nation.” 
 
++Neither the Supreme Court, nor any other court, can redefine marriage.
 
Marriage predates government and civil authorities. No civil authority, including the Supreme Court, has the authority to redefine marriage. Marriage was not created by religion or government and is ontologically a union of one man and one woman. For any Court or civil authority to think it has the authority to redefine marriage is the height of hubris. 
 
While today’s decision on DOMA did not redefine marriage, it has provided the foundation upon which to do so. Today’s decision is the equivalent of the 1972 contraception decision involving unmarried couples and the so-called right to privacy on which the 1973 abortion decision in Roe v. Wade was constructed. 
 
Today, the Supreme Court has damaged its image, lost its legitimacy, and set in motion considerable harm to society and to the State of the Union. 
 
++We stand for Marriage Solidarity! 
 
As you probably know, over 200 religious and civic leaders have signed the Marriage Solidarity Statement, including the leaders of many nationally known ministries representing millions of members. These are deeply concerned Americans who are taking a bold stand for marriage that transcends religious doctrine and boundaries.  
 
The Marriage Solidarity Statement declares that the Christian community will stand in solidarity on this vital issue. Redefining marriage is a line we cannot and will not cross!
 
++Join us today in signing the Marriage Solidarity Statement.  
 
This is an excellent way to raise a cry for moral sanity and help drown out the crowing and obscenities of the pro-homosexual minority that is celebrating today’s misguided Court rulings. 
 
We need every friend possible to join this historic effort! If you have yet to sign, please join us today:  
 
 
Watch for my further updates on these Supreme Court rulings. Our nation has lost its moral compass.  But we will never capitulate to the disordered view that marriage can unite what God says it cannot!  
 
By all means, let us take bold action and continue to pray for our nation.  Above all, don’t give up the battle for natural, God-ordained marriage in our society!  
 
God bless you,
 
Mat Staver, Chairman
Liberty Counsel Action
 
P.S. Based on today’s rulings, the United States Supreme Court has lost its legitimacy as an arbiter of the Constitution and the rule of law.
 
I am calling for unified prayer this week that God will bless our nation and that He will call forth a mighty movement among the American People to affirm and defend the God-ordained institution of marriage! 
 
Together, we are going on record as declaring that the institution of marriage is solely for the union of one man and one woman.  Please, for the sake of our nation, our communities, and your own family, join us!  
 
 
PPS. For those of you on Facebook, we now have a Marriage Solidarity page for you to “Like” and share with your social network. 
 
 

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