A Time for Defiance

I’ve often wondered what it would take for states to tell the Feds what to do with themselves when they exceed their authority.  I contend an important time so to do passed when not one state defied Roe v. Wade.  And there have been any number of other times since.  But the states have been sheep meekly allowing the Feds to herd them to the slaughter of their rights.

But now that a steamroller driven by dictators in black robes and cheerleaded by Obama no less is flattening state marriage laws, perhaps a time for defiance has finally come.  Both the Chief Justice and Governor of Alabama have pledged to uphold that state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage after a fed judge nullified the overwhelming 2006 constitutional referendum. (Sound familiar?)

The statement by the Governor should be cut and pasted by other governors:

The people of Alabama elected me to uphold our state Constitution, and when I took the oath of office last week, that is what I promised to do. . . .  The people of Alabama voted in a constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between man and woman. As governor, I must uphold the Constitution. I am disappointed in Friday's ruling, and I will continue to oppose this ruling. The Federal government must not infringe on the rights of states.

And that is the big issue here – the rights of states and the rights of the people of those states to rule themselves.  Yes, same-sex marriage is an important issue in itself.  But whether or not states bow down to Fed tyranny is more important.

I would rather the presenting issue was one other than same-sex marriage.  (I’ve already mentioned Roe v. Wade.)  Those who either do not care about a constitutional balance between the federal government and the states or who put the gay agenda over every other consideration will surely compare Alabama’s defiance to defying Civil Rights laws and rulings during the 50’s and 60’s.  (I do have an idea to counteract this perception which I may share on a later post.)

But defiance, nullification even, has to be exercised sometime lest the states and their people become more and more pawns under the thumb of Fed tyrants.  And recent Fed rulings on same-sex marriage cry out for defiance.  The Constitution grants Fed judges authority to nullify voter-approved state constitutional amendments stating that marriage is between one man and one woman? A supposed right to same-sex marriage trumps state constitutions and democracy itself? Really? 

Such rulings are not only outrageous and tyrannical; they are absurd.  If these are not Fed overreaches that should be defied, then which are?

To those who think, for whatever reasons, that the states should not say “NO” to the Feds here, I indeed ask, then where?  How tyrannical, unconstitutional and absurd do Fed assertions of authority have to get before the states should say “NO”?  One reason the Federal government has become so tyrannical is the leaders of the states have been timid in saying “NO” to the Feds beginning with Roe v. Wade.

The time for said timidity to end is now.  It is past time for the states to stand up for their rights and for the rights of their people.  This is a time for defiance.