{"id":29929,"date":"2015-06-26T14:23:13","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T20:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?p=29929"},"modified":"2015-06-26T15:25:22","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T21:25:22","slug":"the-supremes-decision-enshrines-cultural-nihilism-in-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/the-supremes-decision-enshrines-cultural-nihilism-in-the-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"The Supremes Decision Enshrines Cultural Nihilism in the Constitution."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Source: Flickr Creative Commons by Tori Rector https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/124387535@N03\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Today, the United States Supreme Court ended marriage as a stable legal institution in the United States of America.<\/p>\n

In flowery language that often sounds like it came from a Harlequin Romance, the decision quotes everybody from Confucius, to Cicero to Alexis de Tocqueville, to the American Association of Psychiatry.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a sample:<\/p>\n

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The centrality of marriage to the human condition makes it unsurprising that the institution has existed for millennia and across civilizations. Since the dawn of history, marriage has transformed strangers into rela- tives, binding families and societies together. Confucius taught that marriage lies at the foundation of government. 2 Li Chi: Book of Rites 266 (C. Chai & W. Chai eds., J. Legge transl. 1967). This wisdom was echoed centuries later and half a world away by Cicero, who wrote, \u201cThe first bond of society is marriage; next, children; and then the family.\u201d See De Officiis<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Court attempts to justify what is in fact the creation of new law. It also overturns its own ruling of a couple of years ago that marriage should be left to the states. Needless to say, a bit of reaching is involved in this legal sophistry.<\/p>\n

The decision actually goes past new law creation and claims an almost seer-like knowledge of the minds of the plaintiffs. It then bases this huge decision of the United States Supreme Court at least in part on what it believes it sees in the plaintiff\u2019s hearts.<\/p>\n

I want to be clear. The Decision actually uses\u00a0the Justices personal impressions that the petitioner\u2019s motives are pure as\u00a0a reason for the findings of the decision itself.<\/p>\n

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Were their intent to demean the revered idea and reality of marriage, the petitioners\u2019 claims would be of a different order. But that is neither their purpose nor their submission. To the contrary, it is the enduring importance of marriage that underlies the petitioners\u2019 contentions. This, they say, is their whole point. Far from seeking to devalue marriage, the petitioners seek it for themselves because of their respect\u2014and need\u2014for its privileges and responsibilities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

We are treated to a spot of history about women\u2019s rights, which is irrelevant since the situation Justice Kennedy describes was remedied at the state level. Then, we are reminded that marriages were once arranged, even though the Decision concedes that this has never been a legal construct of marriage in America. It doesn\u2019t state, as it should, that this makes the consideration bogus.<\/p>\n

When Justice Kennedy finally starts to reference the law, he goes immediately to the right of\u00a0privacy that the Court created in Roe v Wade. In a deep irony, the findings of Roe concerning the then newly-created right of privacy are used to destroy marriage in America.<\/p>\n

The decision spends quite a bit of time explaining that the Constitution is an elastic document and that finding new \u201crights\u201d in it is within the purview of the Court. That is where it places most of its legal arguments.<\/p>\n

The actual arguments it articulates for \u201cfinding\u201d a right to gay marriage in the 14th Amendment are all touchy-feely, emotional stuff. They also reference hardships and problems which are easily solvable without this draconian decision.<\/p>\n

The decision wastes a bit of gas emphasizing the \u201ctwo people\u201d construct of marriage. But it does not define marriage as such. In fact, it does not define marriage as anything other than an emotional bonding between undefined\u00a0persons who are empowered to legal rights concerning this bonding by a new right to \u201cindividual autonomy\u201d and a previously court-created right to privacy.<\/p>\n

And even that is not a definition. It\u2019s just the way the Court talks about marriage.<\/p>\n

Under this ruling. marriage is whatever\u00a0an individual or group of individuals, exercising their right to \u201cindividual autonomy\u201d and their right to privacy say that it is. The ruling specifically addresses gay marriage, but the way\u00a0<\/em>it does it opens the door to anything and everything at all.<\/p>\n

Since the Court appears to \u201cfind\u201d rights in the Constitution independent of the document itself, we won\u2019t have long to wait before the complete destruction of marriage becomes a fact. Any attempts to impose definitions and limitations on marriage, to create a legal entity called marriage that\u00a0is recognizably something real<\/em>, is going to run smack into the arguments created in this Decision.<\/p>\n

Marriage has become a private, rather than a legal matter. At the same time, it has also become a supremely legal matter. Marriage is now a 14th Amendment dueling point which will be pitted against\u00a0every other right given to Americans in the Constitution. The First Amendment freedom of religion is, of course, the most endangered. But once it is vanquished, others will follow.<\/p>\n

The Court has done it again.<\/p>\n

It has set this nation on a course of decades-long culture war. This vague and destructive decision does more than create\u00a0a new kind of marriage. It recreates marriage entirely by making it subject to a \u201cright to individual autonomy\u201d and a \u201cright to privacy.\u201d This newly-created type of \u201cmarriage\u201d is not marriage at all. It is an elastic construct with no boundaries, fixed definitions or even an actual predictable existence.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lengthy decision. I can\u2019t critique it in full in a blog post. You can read it for yourself here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say that marriage is now meaningless under the law.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has done more than create\u00a0a new kind of marriage. It has enshrined cultural nihilism in the Constitution.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, the United States Supreme Court ended marriage as a stable legal institution in the United States of America. In flowery language that often sounds like it came from a Harlequin Romance, the decision quotes everybody from Confucius, to Cicero to Alexis de Tocqueville, to the American Association of Psychiatry. Here\u2019s a sample: The centrality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":29453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1144,3018,592,6269,44,210,41,5302,1],"tags":[7637,214,7636],"class_list":["post-29929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-calling-evil-good","category-calling-good-evil","category-child-rearing","category-destruction-of-the-family-2","category-family","category-freedom-of-religion","category-politics","category-post-christian-west","category-uncategorized","tag-end-of-marriage","tag-gay-marriage","tag-supreme-court-decision"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Supremes Decision Enshrines Cultural Nihilism in the Constitution.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today, the United States Supreme Court ended marriage as a stable legal institution in the United States of America. 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