Sometimes It Works Like It’s Supposed To

In the midst of everything else happening in the world right now, there is something that I think might be slipping beneath the radar a bit except by those people that truly pay attention to these types of things, as well as the people that just want to point to them as an indicator of their political agenda.

In the last month, there have been four incidents that prove that the checks and balances written into our constitution have worked, with the judicial branch stepping in and deeming certain laws unconstitutional. In a couple of cases, these laws were passed by a popular vote among the citizens of the respective state, and even though they “overwhelmingly” passed, it is still against the U.S. Constitution to discriminate against people, even if it is the majority opinion. A democracy works best when the minority is protected, and sometimes it takes the courts to do this protecting. Continue reading “Sometimes It Works Like It’s Supposed To” →

Utah Should Look to Its Past to Map Its Future

I have high hopes for the future of Utah, especially in regards to the political climate. Perusing the comments on the latest news out of my home state makes me question if this is actually the case.

As it currently stands, it doesn’t seem like that is a possibility, especially in light of the current fight regarding same-sex marriage. It seems that a lot of the current political leadership is stuck in generations past, all but proclaiming that it is the state’s prerogative to discriminate a group of people because they don’t fit into some outdated definition of what is “traditional” when it comes to marriage. Continue reading “Utah Should Look to Its Past to Map Its Future” →

Utah and Marriage

As alluded to in my previous post, I am going to try and write more this year, starting out at around 1,500 words a week and building to about that a day by November. Hopefully, I will be able to publish some things that my readers will find interesting, and if there are any ideas as to what you might want to see here, please let me know in the form of a comment. I aim to please and, honestly, it can be difficult to find things to write about sometime. On with the first “real” post of 2014, my reflections on the state of marriage in my home state of Utah.

It started on November 2, 2004, though honestly, I’m sure the swells started long before that. That was the day that Utah was among 11 states that passed some sort of amendment to their state constitutions regarding marriage, defining it as something that is only allowed between man and woman. In Utah, it was known as Amendment 3, and reads as such:

1. Marriage consists only of the legal union between a man and a woman.
2. No other domestic union, however, denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect.

The reason that I am bringing this up now, as many are aware, was that the amendment was challenged in court by some same-sex couples in Utah, and on December 20, 2013, federal judge Robert Shelby, an appointee to the federal bench by President Obama that was endorsed by both of the Republican Senators from Utah, struck down Amendment 3 as unconstitutional, given that it violates the due process rights for same-sex couples, as well as the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Continue reading “Utah and Marriage” →