Law and Lawlessness

On Friday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the United States federal government will continue to recognize the validity of same-sex marriages enacted in the state of Utah, despite the Supreme Court deciding without recorded dissent to stay Utah federal district judge Robert J. Shelby’s ruling that it is unconstitutional for Utah not to publicly recognize same-sex marriages.

Think about that for a second.

A federal district judge in Utah invalidated the will of Utah’s citizens by declaring the conjugal view of marriage to be unconstitutional.

Then, the Attorney General of the United States declares that the Department of Justice will not, in fact, respect the Supreme Court’s stay on Shelby’s ruling, a stay command that simply declares Shelby’s ruling to be void of authority for the present.

The federal government is enforcing a judicial decision handed down in a state that has been commanded by the Supreme Court not to enforce that decision.

The general picture painted here is more one of lawlessness than law.

Robert George, in his recently-released Conscience and Its Enemies, identifies “a fair and effective system of law and government” as one of the three pillars of a decent society. Sadly, the present administration’s actions with respect to marriage have run far afield of just application of law.

Holder’s announcement came a day after Texas Representative Randy Weber introduced HR 3829, known as the “State Marriage Defense Act.” HR 3829 seeks to shore up the gaps created by the Windsor court’s open-ended ruling in June concerning interstate recognition of marriage by ensuring states the sovereignty to define marriage for their own jurisdictions, in accord with the democratic will of the people residing in that state.

Undoubtedly, HR 3829 will be met with fierce Democratic opposition in Congress. That’s not surprising. When ideologies possess powerful people, ordered lawfulness gives way to majoritarian lawlessness. And thus American legal, political, and social culture continues its descent into indecency.