The FMA is a Trojan Horse to destroy Right to Privacy

[northernsoul]

folk, I'm telling you again that Andrew Sullivan's blog (www.andrewsullivan.com) has been a treasure-trove of top notch analysis of both the Gay Marriage battle and 'The Passion' phenomenon. Check this out:

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THE FMA AS TROJAN HORSE: Here's an email from a Republican lawyer who sees the religious right amendment as a device to do far more than just deny gay couples constitutional protection. The amendment is just the beginning of the religious right agenda:

Now that opponents and proponents of gay marriage are all riled about the FMA its time to talk about the true impact of including a definition of marriage in the Constitution. The potential impact of inclusion of the FMA will effect every American straight or gay because the FMA is not about gay marriage, it is a dangerous Trojan Horse that could completely redefine the powers of the federal government. As an attorney who is researching this issue, let me explain to the best of my ability, why I haven’t been sleeping well since Tuesday.

Under the Constitution of the United States there is no express right to privacy, rather this right to be free from excessive government interference in our personal lives has arisen from Supreme Court precedent that cites the lack of regulation of intimate relationships and the protections of the bill of rights as the basis for an inference of the right to privacy. The right to privacy, according the Supreme Court is found in the penumbras and emanations of these two factors. A shadow of a right, very delicate and now threatened.

By including a provision regulating the most intimate of relationships into the Constitution, the traditional analysis that the court has used to limit government power will be fundamentally changed and the right to privacy, if it is not destroyed completely, will be severely curtailed. As a result, decisions like Roe v. Wade, (Abortion), Griswold v. Connecticut (Birth Control), Lawrence v. Texas (Private Sexual Acts), will all be fair game for re-analysis under this new jurisprudential regime as the Constitutional foundation for those decisions will have been altered. A brilliant strategy really, with one amendment the religious right could wipe out access to birth control, abortion, and even non-procreative sex (as Senator Santorum so eagerly wants to do).

This debate isn’t only about federalism, it’s about the reversal of two hundred years of liberal democracy that respects individuals. So why isn’t anyone talking about this aspect of it?
With luck, this agenda will be revealed as this amendment is discussed and debated. The most important thing to remember is who is behind this amendment: Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Gary Bauer, Robert Bork, Rick Santorum. For them, gays are just the beginning, the soft targets before the real battle. Memo to straights: you're next.
- 6:58:11 PM
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[JasonDeter]

1. The sky is falling! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Andrew Sullivan was QUIET when the rights of the Democratic process and the right of decent and the voice of Democracy was being silenced by the bush* cabal but NOW that something HE SEES as important is on the line EVERYONE IS SUPPOSED TO LISTEN TO HIM? LOL! I really don't care what Sullivan has to say. He needs a much longer track record than this short respite from meek aquascience for me to even think about standing with him. Unlike him I have confidence in the wisdom of the American collective to always do the right thing or to repair its excesses and to fix the damage of its extremists.

[northernsoul]

2. Sully aside, should we ignore the threat to our Constitution?

I don't think that FMA will pass, but I think that the analysis from this anonymous republican lawyer is pretty much right on the money.

This post wasn't about Sullivan (it just happens to be his blog where I found this analysis) - it's about what the wackjobs of the right want to do to our constitution.

[JasonDeter]

3. I don't think it will pass either.

The republican dynasty is on the decline. Ten years is all America can stand of the republican party. My fear is though, the republicans have messed things up so bad, that when the Democrats do take over they'll be blamed for everything that goes wrong even though it was because of the stupid republican policies!