Clearly someone is getting ready to run for President. There's no other reason than to let voters decide if your own son can legally be allowed to marry in your home state.The appeals court judges who refused Thursday to strike down anti-gay marriage bans in Ohio and three other states share a common view – one seemingly missed by many, pro or con -- with U.S. Sen. Rob Portman.Portman, an Ohio Republican, supports gay marriage. That makes him a political symbol of hope within the gay-marriage movement. His position, known publicly since March 2013, has forced him to assure conservatives that he has not abandoned other bedrock issues such as abortion opposition.
Portman says he sees freedom to marry as fundamentally conservative.
Yet Portman prefers that the right not be accomplished by judicial fiat. And neither does the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, based in Cincinnati.
The court, in a 2-1 ruling Thursday, characterized the issue as a choice -- of either allowing "the democratic processes begun in the states to continue," or using its judicial authority to force an end to gay-marriage bans. Should gay marriage, considered a constitutional right by a growing number of jurisdictions, be struck down by the courts or, as Judge Jeffrey Sutton, an appointee of President George W. Bush, wrote, through the will of voters?
"Who decides?" wrote Sutton, in an opinion joined by Judge Deborah Cook. "Is this a matter that the national Constitution commits to resolution by the federal courts or leaves to the less expedient, but usually reliable, work of the state democratic processes?"
The court chose the latter, refusing to rule that laws banning or affecting gay marriage in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee violate the Constitution's due process or equal protection clauses.
Like Portman, Sutton said that "we cannot deny thinking the plaintiffs deserve better." But Sutton suggested that victory for gay couples could come through legislation or new ballot initiatives, the same kind that millions of voters used in states like Michigan and Ohio a decade ago to make gay marriage unconstitutional. - Northeast Ohio Media Group, 11/9/14
