A reader writes with some concern asking what options pro-family forces have in Connecticut in the wake of the Kerrigan decision legalizing same-sex marriage:
Is there going to be an amendment or a vote that the public can make like in California to ban the same sex marriage here in Connecticut? How do we ban it here as well? Is it too late?
This is an important question: is it possible to overturn the Kerrigan decision by electoral or some other means? There are indeed options, none of which, I hasten to say, has any chance of success absent divine intervention. However, before we even begin to explore political or legal options, we do well to take stock of the new realities. Do we really understand the place at which we have arrived?
In Connecticut, gay marriage will mean a mandatory and total acceptance of homosexuality in all spheres of life. Make no mistake: this represents the true end of the long and deliberate process of divorcing society from its Christian underpinnings. We must realize that there is no longer any sense at all in which we can say that Christianity is the animating principle of government or society in Connecticut, or any other place where there is homosexual marriage.
Think about it: in half a lifetime, homosexuality has gone from being an aberration and a psychiatric disorder not frequently discussed in polite society to being on a par with heterosexual marriage. Indeed, a new form of tolerance demands that we view it as such, but this new “tolerance” is not tolerance at all; it is intolerance of all who dare question the new orthodoxy. Thus the crafters of the new orthodoxy have become the intolerant bigots they accused Christians of being. If recent events are any guide, homosexual activists will not be willing to surrender what they have gained over the last 40 years. Indeed, the acceptance of homosexuality will now be enforced with all the machinery that the State has at its disposal. Religious conscience will be steamrolled in nearly all cases, as we are already seeing in the case of justices of the peace.
The full effects of this have not been seen yet in Connecticut, as they have in Massachusetts. The language of civil rights, now just as fully applicable to homosexuality as it is to matters of race, will mandate indoctrination of children and trump all rights of parents to guide their children’s education. Exaggeration? Not at all. In Massachusetts, the schools openly promote homosexuality and parents can neither opt out nor even be notified!
Christians are now a minority in matters of morality despite whatever numerical majority they may still enjoy. The court system, having severed itself from our Constitution, has become inimical to the faith. The sooner we will simply grow up and face this the better off we will be. Notice I did not say that there is no Christian influence, or remnant of Christians in the region. However, it is past time that we woke up. Just this month we have seen that even Californians, famously liberal, voted against homosexual marriage when they had a chance. Perhaps their familiarity with in-your-face homosexual activism pushed them over the edge. So is there hope? Yes. Will it require new approaches, new mindsets, and new tools? Absolutely.
Having said all of that, what options do we have?
Connecticut does not have any right of initiative such as Californians have to propose and create amendments to the Constitution or State laws. So scratch that option right at the outset.
One option would be for the Connecticut Supreme Court to overturn its own decision in Kerrigan. While anything is possible, this seems highly unlikely given the deference that judges give to their own precedents. The Court would have to adopt the reasoning of the dissenting justices over time and acknowledge some error, some change in society’s views, etc.
Could someone appeal from this decision to the Federal Courts? Extremely unlikely, as the Federal Courts do not like to interfere with decisions from the highest court of a State which interpret that State’s Constitution. They taught us in law school that States can always recognize more rights than the Federal government, and this is one of those cases. Incidentally, this means that even if a Federal Defense of Marriage Amendment were passed Connecticut might still have gay marriage, depending on how it was worded.
Another option is a convention which could amend the Constitution. There are two ways to call for a Constitutional Convention. First, as we saw this year, the voters must be presented every twenty years with the option to vote for a Constitutional Convention. Since we’ve just seen this question go down in flames, we will not get another chance at this one until 2028! A second way would be for the Legislature to vote for a Convention. This requires a 2/3 vote of each house of the Legislature and cannot take place less than ten years after a previous Convention. Again, this option is only to have a Convention, and does not guarantee what would take place at the Convention. See Article Thirteen of the State Constitution here.
Yet another option, by far the quickest and easiest in some ways, would be for the Legislature to simply pass a Constitutional Amendment. However, in our current political climate (and Connecticut being the State with the lowest percentage of Evangelicals), this would pose great difficulties. The Sixth Amendment to the State Constitution provides:
Amendments to this constitution may be proposed by any member of the senate or house of representatives. An amendment so proposed, approved upon roll call by a yea vote of at least a majority, but by less than three-fourths, of the total membership of each house, shall be published with the laws which may have been passed at the same session and be continued to the regular session of the general assembly elected at the next general election to be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November in an even-numbered year. An amendment so proposed, approved upon roll call by a yea vote of at least three-fourths of the total membership of each house, or any amendment which, having been continued from the previous general assembly, is again approved upon roll call by a yea vote of at least a majority of the total membership of each house, shall, by the secretary of the state, be transmitted to the town clerk in each town in the state, whose duty it shall be to present the same to the electors thereof for their consideration at the next general election to be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November in an even-numbered year. If it shall appear, in a manner to be provided by law, that a majority of the electors present and voting on such amendment at such election shall have approved such amendment, the same shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of this constitution. Electors voting by absentee ballot under the provisions of the statutes shall be considered to be present and voting.
Let me put my lawyer glasses on. As I read it, this is potentially a multi-year process, approved by 3/4 of the Legislators (or at least 1/2 of them and then 1/2 of the Legislators from the next session) and then submitted to the voters afterwards.
Is it really possible that Connecticut voters can apply enough pressure on their State Legislators, some of whom are openly gay, to make this last possibility become a reality? There’s only one way to know, and that’s to try it. In California this squeaked by. What would happen here?
