Amerikansk høyesterett og homofile ekteskap
USAs føderale høyesterett har veldig makt, og tar viktige avgjørelser som i Norge og mange andre land blir tatt av stortinget/parlamentet. Nå har domstolen åpnet noe mer for homofile ekteskap i USA, men hva de har gjort og ikke gjort er vanskelig å begripe for de fleste utlendinger. Slik leste jeg i dag i First Things om dette (jeg siterer bare starten og avslutningen av artikkelen):
Marriage and Justice Are Wounded, But Not Fatally
You know that someone has bad news to relate when he begins by saying, “well, it could have been worse.” That is what the defenders of conjugal marriage are saying after the brace of Supreme Court rulings issued yesterday on challenges to that truth that is as old as the human race, that marriage is between a man and a woman. The net effect of the rulings is further damage to marriage, and to the power of the law to uphold the truth about it.
But, well, it could have been worse. In the case widely recognized as the more pivotal of the two, Hollingsworth v. Perry, in which a claim was squarely asserted that same-sex couples have a federal constitutional right to be married anywhere in the country, the majority of the justices decided not to decide. ….
…. Yet let us remind ourselves that for now, Section 2 of DOMA is intact, preserving the right of states not to recognize same-sex marriages contracted in other jurisdictions. And the right of states to control, by their own political processes, what marriage means under their own laws is still intact too. It will now be easier for the adversaries of the conjugal meaning of marriage to mount challenges to state laws, and to what remains of DOMA. The appalling rhetoric of Justice Kennedy gives those adversaries fresh ammunition in the battle.
But the battle continues, and for people who have faith in the truth, despair is never an option. Yes. It could have been much, much worse. We have a lot of work ahead of us.