Extreme Judicial Activism on Marriage

Chuck Donovan / August 04, 2010

Today’s decision by a federal district judge in San Francisco striking down state constitutional protections for marriage and inventing a spurious federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage is an example of extreme judicial activism.  Moreover, it is an affront to the millions of California voters who approved Proposition 8 in 2008 after months of vigorous public debate.

Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.  The people of California, and the United States, have made clear in numerous ways that they have not consented to the redefinition of marriage.  For the past two decades they have considered the arguments advanced by some for overturning marriage as it has been understood in our country.  In state after state — 45 in all – they have chosen to reaffirm the meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.  They have done so because they understand that establishing same-sex marriage would transform the institution into a set of private interests rather than buttress it as a multi-generational reality binding mothers, fathers and their children biologically, socially and legally. (more…)