Federal Judge: No Constitutional Right To Same-Sex Marriage

On Friday, a Federal Judge ruled that same-sex marriage is not a Constitutional right:

Ruling that the Supreme Court settled the issue forty years ago, a federal judge in Hawaii has declared that same-sex couples do not have a constitutional right to get married.   In a 117-page ruling (found here), Senior U.S. District Judge Alan C. Kay concluded on Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s summary ruling in 1972 in Baker v. Nelson controlled the question.  But even if it did not, the judge added, a state ban on gay marriages satisfies the minimum level of constitutional analysis.

In a brief lecture on civics, going beyond the pure legal questions, Judge Kay argued that the issue should be left to legislative bodies across the nation or to the people, not to the courts.   “If the traditional institution of marriage is to be restructured,” the judge wrote, “it should be done by a democratically-elected legislature or the people through a constitutional amendment, not through judicial legislation that would inappropriately preempt democratic deliberation regarding whether or not to authorize same-sex marriage.”   The ruling came in the case ofJackson v. Abercrombie (District docket 11-734).

Read more at: http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/08/judge-blocks-same-sex-marriages/