I wrote yesterday about how the same-sex marriage ruling in Obergefel v. Hodges by the Supreme Court was being used by polygamists in an attempt to legalize plural marriages. At the end of the article, I challenged anyone who held the belief that redefining marriage would only affect the homosexual community to take the time to learn how it would ultimately lead to the destruction of our First Amendment rights — specifically, the Freedom of Religion.
These fears were realized in Kentucky yesterday when a county clerk was ordered by the Supreme Court to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after they rejected her contention that she was being forced to violate her religious convictions.
The justices, without explanation, refused to lift a lower court order requiring Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to resume distributing marriage licenses. She had stopped issuing any licenses, even after an order from the state’s governor, immediately after the Supreme Court ruling in June.
The emergency appeal has been identified as an early test as to how the Supreme Court handle religious objections to gay marriage following the landmark ruling. Unfortunately, the ruling came down as Chief Justice John Roberts predicted in his dissenting opinion in the Obergefel v. Hodges case:
Federal courts are blunt instruments when it comes to creating rights. They have constitutional power only to resolve concrete cases or controversies; they do not have the flexibility of legislatures to address concerns of parties not before the court or to anticipate problems that may arise from the exercise of a new right. Today’s decision, for example, creates serious questions about religious liberty. Many good and decent people oppose same-sex marriage as a tenet of faith, and their freedom to exercise religion is—unlike the right imagined by the majority—actually spelled out in the Constitution. Amendment One. (emphasis mine)
Davis describes herself as a devout Christian, and says it would violate her conscience to approve a marriage license to a same-sex couple. She also barred her deputies from issuing licenses because the documents would bear her name.
She argued that same-sex couples could obtain a license in another county, and argued that the Supreme Court’s cases “do not create a fundamental right to receive a marriage license from a particular person.”
According to homosexual activist, law professor and Obama EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) appointee Chai Feldblum, it boils down to a “zero sum game” when it comes to the legal battles between modern “rights” based on sexual “orientation” and the traditional American principle of Freedom of Religion.
In the end, “gays win, Christians lose,” said Feldblum, predicting homosexuals would win most of the legal contests.
David Leach is the owner and publisher of The Strident Conservative where he is proudly politically-incorrect and always “right.” He is also a frequent contributor at RedState.com.
His political commentaries can be heard daily on KLZ560 AM and other Crawford Broadcasting stations.
Contact him at david@stridentconservative.com
