With everyone opining about marriage equality, few people are asking the more important question: What business does government have in the *religious* institution of marriage? Think about it: Every state in the union requires a license to marry. And what is a license? According to Webster, it's "a permission granted by competent authority to engage in a business or occupation or in an activity
otherwise unlawful". So, one cannot enter into the religious institution of marriage without permission from the state. Here's why that's unconstitutional:
The
Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religious covenants. Marriage is a religious covenant and can exist independently of government. In fact, marriage predates government by several thousands of years. Religious ceremonies uniting amorous couples
existed as early as 20,000 B.C,
eons before the institution of government. The concept of uniting amorous couples is uniquely religious in nature, and the legislation of marriage has only come about because of the spillover of religion into the political system.
The ubiquitous requirement of a state-issued license to marry is an unconstitutional impediment to the free exercise of the uniquely religious practice of uniting amorous people. Requiring a license, the state can deny one the ability to marry even if one's religion permits it. The Unitarian Church, for example,
offers ceremonies for same-sex couples. However, the ceremonies
are considered a formality only in states that only issue licenses to opposite-sex couples. In other words, government impedes the free exercise of the institution of marriage in the Unitarian Church because it prohibits full nuptial ceremonies from being conducted in most states.
Justice Ginsburg called weddings as a formality "skim milk marriages". The "dairy", the religious institution, can't offer "whole milk" without permission from the government. That requirement is clearly unconstitutional.
Seth Mason, Charleston SC
America's economic future is uncertain. But one thing this country has going for it is its burgeoning liberty movement. A great many Americans have become weary of the nanny state and the prospect of endless war. Today, a majority of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, marriage equality, believe the war in Iraq was a mistake, and believe we shouldn't still be in Afghanistan. Most Republicans, on the other hand, are on the wrong side of each of these issues:
