Tomorrow is big day for everyone concerned with the fraying fabric of American society. The Massachusetts Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case demanding that full, legal recognition be granted to same-sex “marriages.” This isn’t Vermont-style civil unions, but the real thing. And if it happens in Massachusetts, it will happen in every state because of the US Constitution’s “full faith and credit” clause. That means that if someone marries in Mass., then other states have to recognize the marriage, even if they don’t allow the ceremonies.
I don’t have much faith in the Mass. Supremes, so I’m assuming they’re going to rule in favor. What can we do? There are so few social conservative politicians left in Mass. that I don’t expect a legal maneuver to block it. And since the Church’s moral capital is long-spent in this past yearlong Lent of our own making, we haven’t heard a peep from that quarter. Our only hope is for the US Congress to pass some type of federal ban to preserve marriage, preventing spill-over into other states. It’s the only remedy to the “full faith and credit” loophole. I think a longer longshot is the US Supreme Court getting involved, but that’s years down the road, if it happens at all, and with Roe v. Wade as a privacy precedent, I’m not hopeful there.
