Quote:
|
Originally Posted by LadyShea
The right to privacy is being infringed upon as is the right to equal treatment under the law. It's not marriage itself that is a right.
Many things are not Constitutional rights, but discriminating against a group of people would still be a civil rights violation...for example the right to own a home is not guaranteed by the Constitution, but laws against women buying homes would be an infringement of rights, wouldn't you agree?
|
I'm not sure how the right to privacy would be implicated here. A legal marriage is a public act, publicly witnessed and recorded. I don't see how that allows for any reasonable expectation of privacy. I agree that the equal protection clause may have bearing on the issue and I believe that it is on those grounds that the issue will ultimately be adjudicated, one way or the other.
On the question of housing discrimination, certainly it is illegal, not because it is unconstitutional, but because it violates specific civil rights legislation dealing with discrimination in housing. To the best of my knowledge, there is no comparable federal legislation prohibiting discrimination in regard to marriage. It is precisely that kind of legislation that one side of this issue is trying to promote and that the other side is trying to prevent.