Democracy and Obergefell

Penna Dexter

On a recent trip to Greece, I learned that during the Athenian Golden Age, 449-431 BC, there emerged a fervent belief in the ability of man. 

Our tour leader, David Sparks explained the development of democracy in ancient Greece, which culminated in Athens taking power from the hands of a single ruler or aristocratic ruling class and redistributing that power to all male citizens regardless of social or economic status. “Each male citizen over eighteen was allowed participation in the Assembly, the legislative body that elected magistrates and created legislation.”

It’s hard to overstate the importance of this “shift from rule-by-the-few to rule-by-the-many.” This idea, democracy, is foundational to our government and culture. Sometimes our leaders forget that.

Nine years ago this week the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a landmark ruling that violates the very principles of democracy. 

In the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, the Court struck down all state laws specifying that marriage is the union between one man and one woman, bringing legal same sex marriage to every state. 

When you get a bad decision from the Supreme Court, it’s worth reading the dissenting opinion. In this case each of the four dissenting justices wrote his own. All lamented the damage the ruling does to democracy. The dissenters agreed, the question in this case was not whether same-sex marriage is a good idea, but who should decide. It should not have been the Court, but the people and their elected legislators.

Chief Justice Roberts spoke of the sheer arrogance of the ruling, saying: 

“The Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the states and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia.” He wondered: “Just who do we think we are?”

Since then, the Left has pulled out all the stops to force acceptance of same sex marriage into law and policy.