Position Statement: Marriage

Marriage is a religious institution. Each religion is free to specify terms of marriage and related traditions, and to hold or define related ceremonies without government intervention.

Legal/civil matters are separate and distinct from religious matters: government should not translate religious terms, traditions, or ceremonies into legal/civil requirements.

Clearly the intention of authors of the Constitution was that states have jurisdiction over all but a very few critical and clearly specified roles of government. Marriage is not listed in the Constitution so there is no role for the federal government whatsoever.

Furthermore, the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Most importantly, under no conditions should government treat one group of citizens any differently than another – that is discrimination and is unconstitutional. Plus, we (should have) learned the hard way what happens when we treat one group of people differently than other groups: slavery, separate but equal, interning citizens based on ethnicity, etc.

Consider these words from the Section 1. of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Equal Protection Clause: […] No state shall […] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

So whatever laws do exist must treat everyone the same.