The country might be ready for the Supreme Court to take a cue from the judges who have struck down gay marriage bans in recent months, according to a poll out Friday.
The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent flagged a significant datapoint in the latest ABC/WaPo survey.
Regardless of your own preference on the issue, do you think that the part of the U.S. Constitution providing Americans with equal protection under the law does or does not give gays and lesbians the legal right to marry?
Does: 50
Does not: 43
Sargent wrote this might be an even bigger milestone for gay rights than the sweeping shift in public attitudes about same-sex marriage in general.
The poll found a solid majority — 56 percent — in favor of gay nuptials. But the datapoint Sargent highlighted will only deepen the belief that the Supreme Court will weigh in on the question, perhaps sooner rather than later.
Although the Supreme Court didn’t declare a Constitutional right to gay marriage in last summer’s ruling in United States v. Windsor, lower court judges have repeatedly cited the case in striking down bans in several states.
Just last month, judges in Arkansas, Idaho and Pennsylvania ruled that laws banning same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.
Either the equal protection clause applies to everyone—including The Gay—or it applies to no one.
There is no such thing as “gay marriage.”
There’s just “marriage,” and either the law applies to everyone who wants to marry, or it applies to no one.
The Constitution DOES protect it. The 14th Amendment.
Specifically, “No state shall deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
However, now there is no constitutional prohibition against experimental forms of marriage, extended families, and such. However laws setting minimum age for marriage and preventing the buying / selling of child brides need to be established as well. But laws pertaining to poly families will need to be developed in order to protect all involved.
No doubt about it–gay marriage is fabulously constitutional.