Patrick J. Buchanan
November 24 2003
"John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it," thundered Andrew
Jackson of the legendary chief justice.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, we have one Margaret Marshall, chief justice
of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, ordering the state legislature to
enact, in 180 days, a law giving homosexuals the right to marry. What is to be
done with this Justice Marshall?
The legislature and Gov. Mitt Romney should ignore the court, defy the order and
submit to Massachusetts voters a constitutional amendment declaring that
marriage is between a man and woman, as God and nature intended.
Massachusetts has been given an opportunity to lead the nation as it did in the
1770s, in breaking the power of a tyranny. If Bay State legislators will refuse
to pass the law demanded by the court, and Romney will refuse to sign such a law
and orders the bureaucracy to ignore the court, what could the court do? Order
his arrest? Declare him in contempt. So what? Reasonable people already hold the
Massachusetts court in contempt.
It is time for elected representatives to take back powers that were never
constitutionally granted to any court. For the issue here is not, "What is
decided?" but, "Who decides?" In a republic, the power to write laws is given to
elected representatives, not judges or justices.
In every state, marriage has been between a man and woman and restrictions have
been set by the legislature. One cannot practice bigamy or polygamy or
polyandry. One cannot marry children. One cannot marry a member of one's own
family.
What the Massachusetts court did was to declare that, from now on, it would
decide such matters. The Massachusetts court has just usurped the power of the
elected branches, and they should slap the court down.
This is an issue of power as well as law. Gov. Romney can make himself a
national figure by refusing to propose or to sign any law regarding marriage
that he and the people of the Bay State believe to be rooted in ignorance,
illogic and immorality.
The opportunity afforded by this absurd decision is not confined to
Massachusetts. Legislatures across America should enact laws defining marriage
as between a man and woman. Voters should petition to have identical referenda
put on the ballot.
Congress should re-enact the Defense of Marriage Act and amend it to deny the
Supreme Court any right of review. Congress' power to restrict the appellate
review jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was granted in Article III of the
Constitution for a purpose. This is it.
President Bush should make the preservation of marriage the social issue of
2004. Every candidate, including Gov. Dean if nominated by the Democrats, should
be forced to declare himself for or against the idea that marriage is restricted
to men and women.
Gay activists and their media auxiliaries will denounce this as the politics of
divisiveness and hate. But America has begun to catch on to the tactic of
smearing as bigots and haters any who resist this new social revolution. And the
nation has begun to see through the strategy of imposing that revolution, not
through the democratic process of winning hearts, minds and votes, but through
the dictatorial process of getting collaborator-judges to issue court degrees.
"The worse the better" is an old revolutionary slogan. The more stupid, arrogant
and oppressive a regime becomes, the more the people turn to revolution to be
rid of it. The principle applies to counterrevolutions, as well. The more
insolent, arrogant and dictatorial judges become, the more they build up the
cordite of counterrevolution.
In a half century, we have watched judges and justices arbitrarily strike down
laws against pornography, denying communities the power to prevent the pollution
of cultures. We have seen the killing of unborn children declared a
constitutional right. We have seen children forcibly bused across cities to meet
some jurist's idea of what is the proper racial balance.
Judges have declared the pledge of allegiance to be a violation of the
Constitution. They have ordered high-school teams not to pray before games. They
have ordered students not to say a prayer at graduation. They have told teachers
what they may and may not teach about God and man. They have declared homosexual
sodomy a constitutional right.
Time to go to the root of America's social crisis: the power usurped by judges
and imposed against the will of the people and their chosen representatives.
Legislatures and executives should begin recapturing their lost powers, or we
should find new legislators and executives with the courage to restore the
constitutional balance of the Fathers. Let the counterrevolution begin where
that first revolution began, with a new Boston Tea Party.