A flux of states have legalized same-sex marriage recently, mostly due to federal courts saying that bans on these marriages are unconstitutional.
My home state of North Carolina is one of the many states who voted to ban same-sex marriage; we took it so far as to support a state constitutional amendment saying so. Many Conservatives seem to be riled up that courts would?overturn the will of the people in these situations.
I want to give these people a good dose of enlightenment. To everyone who is appalled that the courts have overturned the will of the people, two words: Founding Fathers.
These are the guys?that Conservatives seem to adore. “Our founding fathers would be turning in their graves…” they say in regards to Obama’s so-called socialist agenda. However, it seems that these people have no idea how anti-popular-opinion they were as a whole. Our Constitution and structure of government has various facets that were?put in place to limit the will of the people collectively.
We have staggered elections, the U.S. Senate, the Electoral College, the power of the veto, and the court system, to protect against the majority. Maybe those complaining about overturning bans on same-sex marriage need to go back to middle or high school basic United States History classes. The courts ?were?put in place in part?to protect the rights of minorities from the majority.
James Madison, aka “The Father Of The Constitution,” was concerned about public factions. He thought that a Republic was a good form of government and that the people and legislature should have a say, but that these popular factions would use government for their own interests. This would allow those who are in a majority faction to bestow their will and might onto everyone else and the minority factions would have no power or control. The courts were a means to protect against this.
Popular opinion used to be that slavery was good in the U.S. South, or that blacks couldn’t sit where they would like in public. We used to think that 13- year- olds getting married was perfectly fine. We thought children working 15 hours a day was normal and acceptable. The fact is, there have been a myriad of ideas and even laws that the will of the people supported, in which we now look back on in shame. What makes you same-sex marriage critics believe that the anti-equality opinion is not in the same category as the aforementioned ?sentiments we once had?
I am glad that ?a Federal Judge in North Carolina overturned what our citizens voted for in regards to marriage equality. This?was?the Constitution and our founders’ beliefs in action. As usual however, Conservatives are die-hard Constitutionalists when they do not want the government to do anything not specifically outlined in the Constitution (like ?helping the less fortunate through social programs) ?but they turn a blind eye to it when it relates to protecting the fundamental rights of the people. The former is actually in the Constitution as the preamble even has the word welfare in it, and the 9th Amendment says that there are rights not specifically listed in the Constitution (perhaps, maybe the right to eat or have a good education). The massive misunderstanding of our government and how it was founded has allowed Conservatives to carry on with bigoted and downright wrong beliefs.
I hope to never hear again how repugnant it is that a judge would overturn the will of the people when in fact, that has been happening forever and will continue to occur because that is why we have courts. We need a branch of government that only has a purpose to do what is right and just because the “majority faction”?is?not always reliable.
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