What the Supreme Court decision does and does not do

 

G and I in 1966 on our wedding day!

I see a lot of excitement on both sides of the fence in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision which stated that laws restricting marriage to male and female were unconstitutional but there appears to be a lot of confusion as to what the decision means, practically speaking. For example, the Supreme Court decision does not allow folks to marry their dogs (sorry about that, dog lovers!)

One of the problems is that many folks drop out of High School in the third year and even if they do finish High School, they may not have been required to take a course in "Government".  And even if they did take such a course, it likely, was not the intense course we, in our High School, had back in the 1960's - G and I had the best teacher we ever had for government and both of us really learned a lot.  Our teacher also suggested a lot of supplementary reading and I, unlike many, I suppose, did do the supplementary reading - for example the book, "ADVISE AND CONSENT" and the like.

So considering all of this, here is my explanation.  The Supreme Court decision renders any federal laws restricting marriage to male and female, unconstitutional - except I found out that the specifics who can marry what, are not found on the federal level (in the 14th Amendment) but rather in the state laws.

The first couple who wishes to do a s/s marriage on the state level, will have to take the state to court to question the law against the recent Supreme Court decision.  The couple will win, of course, but this takes time and money and provides business for attorneys.  It's not a "slam dunk".  Couples following that first couple, who are s/s will then, be able to marry in that particular state.

This is only on the civil level.  Catholic priests, for example, will NOT be forced to give the Sacrament of Marriage (which is separate from civil marriage) to s/s couples - there are many rules about the Sacrament of marriage in the Catholic church - for example, priests may also not marry divorced folks unless they have had their first marriage(s) annulled and so forth.  This will not change because we do have, guaranteed, by the constitution, "freedom of religion".

I hope people in reading this blog, will relax a bit - I know in doing the research, I felt a lot better about the situation.