It appears, sadly, that if you want to bypass the expressed will of the American people in order to re-define marriage, all you need to do, as a government official, is declare your belief that the current one man, one woman marriage law is unconstitutional and then roll over and not defend against a lawsuit challenging the law.  The assumption and hope of marriage-redefining politicians is that no one else will be legally allowed to defend the law, and a major social policy change can become a fait accompli without any messy preliminaries such as public debate or voting.

We’ve seen it all before. The Department of Justice and the Obama Administration stopped defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines “marriage” and “spouse” for purposes of all federal laws. And when the House of Representatives stepped in to defend DOMA, the DOJ actively started filing pleadings arguing against DOMA.

We saw it in California, when gay activists sued to have the state’s marriage amendment, known as Prop 8, declared unconstitutional. Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to defend the law, and non-governmental organizations like ProtectMarriage.com had to organize a defense and solicit private donations for the purpose.

And now, as CitizenLink reports, it’s happening in Illinois, which just passed a civil unions law last year. Instead of defending the state’s one man, one woman definition of marriage, the Cook County State’s attorney has filed a motion in the recent same-sex marriage challenge essentially agreeing with the plaintiffs’ claim that the civil unions law relegates them to an “inferior status” and has “stigmatized” them. The state attorney general, the chief legal officer of the state,  plans to file a brief  supporting the plaintiffs’ claim as well. The Governor, a Democrat, is also a supporter of same-sex marriage, as is the Cook County clerk who is the nominal defendant in the lawsuit. Unless the trial judge allows a proxy for the citizens of Illinois, such as the Thomas More Society, to intervene to defend marriage, then the defense of marriage in that state will be over before it even begins.

Pay special attention to patterns here, folks. First, marriage re-definers pass a civil unions or domestic partnership law, usually insisting and selling the public that it’s all about hospital visitation or medical decisions. Then, as we have seen in Connecticut, California, New Jersey, Hawaii, Nevada and now Illinois, they sue to have the civil unions law they just lobbied for declared unconstitutional, akin to “Jim Crow” laws that create second-class citizens, and for same-sex marriage to be mandated in its place.

What’s the saying: Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice….?

We’re being fooled on a daily basis. It’s time to get wise to the opposition’s tactics.

Print