An Affront to the Constitution (Nichols/Nation)

[struggle4progress]

It's an election year, so, quick, let's amend the Constitution ..

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, thinks he has struck political paydirt. He wants to amend the Constitution to declare that, along with freedom of speech, assembly and worship, Americans also have the right to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Frist wants the Constitution to declare not just that "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman" but that "Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman." ...

Senate Judiciary Committee chair Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, scheduled the session where the committee voted 10-8 to approve the amendment in a room where access by the press and the general public was restricted. When Senator Russ Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who ardently opposes the amendment, suggested that perhaps the work of amending the Constitution ought to be conducted in a more open manner, Specter growled, I don't need to be lectured by you. You are no more a protector of the Constitution than am I." ...

Feingold added, "Constitutional amendments deserve the most careful and deliberate consideration of any matter that comes before the Senate. In addition to hearings and a subcommittee markup, such a measure should be considered by the Judiciary Committee in the light of day, open to the press and the public, with cameras present so that the whole country can see what is done. Open and deliberate debate on such an important matter cannot take place in a setting such as the one chosen by the Chairman of the Committee today ...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=84876

[Jack Rabbit]

1. You beat me by a few seconds

Let me be the first to K & R

ON EDIT

Now that I've done that . . .

It is bad enough that the Republicans want to amend the Constitution in this way.

It is even worse that their amendment would prohibit the states from extending the right to marry to gay couples.

Not only is it worse, it's monstrously hypocritical. Supposedly, conservatives believe in states rights and federalism. A problem in Oklahoma may be addressed one way and the same problem in California another. However, the proposed language here not only states that the federal government will not recognize gay marriage, but that no state shall have the right to recognize it.

It looks like another conservative principle has bit the dust, plowed asunder by yuppie fascists.

[struggle4progress]

2. You must be a slow typist today, JR.

:toast:

[Jack Rabbit]

3. I'm a slow typist everyday

:toast:

[neoblues]

4. Such Considerations as "Marriage"

Have No Place in Our Constitution! To even suggest such a thing is showing disrespect to our most important national document.

[Dudley_DUright]

5. I thank our wise founding fathers for making it so difficult to

amend the constitution. In FL it is ridiculously easy to amend the state constitution by referendum. The repukes aren't even pretending to care about (small d) democratic niceties anymore. If the wingnuts want it, ram it through by any means necessary.