Dear editor:

Recently, your paper saw fit to print an editorial from the Decatur Daily attacking Chief Justice Roy Moore for his defense of traditional marriage.

It stated that Justice Moore had told elected officials in Alabama to ignore the ruling by the US Supreme Court on same sex marriage “only because his personal beliefs were in conflict with the law.”

My question is: What law?  A ruling by the federal judiciary cannot create a new law where none exists.

According to the Constitution, the power to make laws is vested in Congress only.

No law has ever been passed by Congress declaring same sex marriage to be the law.

Even if Congress did make such a law, it would not be legal. The extent to which Congress may make laws is limited by the Constitution to just those issues enumerated within the document itself.

The power to regulate or define marriage is not among them.

That power is reserved to each state individually by the Tenth Amendment.

According to the laws passed by the consent of the people of Alabama, marriage within this state is defined as being between one man and one woman.

Before a handful of federal judges bestowed upon themselves the God-like power to change the meaning of words, the overwhelming majority of other states had defined marriage the same way.

The writer from the Decatur Daily acknowledged that the United States is a “democratic republic ruled by a constitution.”  And yet he supports the idea that a few unelected judges, with no accountability to voters, have the absolute authority to overrule both the will of the people and the Constitution.

In formulating his opinion did that writer not feel the slightest obligation to consistency?

To imply that Justice Moore is motivated by nothing other than his own personal beliefs is a gross oversimplification of this issue.

What is at stake is constitutional government in America.

It just so happens that Justice Moore’s personal belief that the Supreme Court cannot define marriage is supported by the Constitution.

If the writer for the Decatur Daily cannot see that then he is woefully ignorant of what the Constitution actually says.

 

Steven Fitts

Selma