I read the editorial a few days ago lamenting that homosexual same-sex marriage is now the law of the land and all should embrace this new federal law. The author stated that we need to calm down and accept it as settled law. I agree, as long as we do the same for all federal laws. “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
We have federal laws on immigration. Coming to America without going through the lawful immigration process is violation of federal law, a felony. However, we have large cities — New York, San Francisco and others — that have declared themselves “sanctuary cities.” Illegal immigrants go there and are not arrested or turned over to immigration authorities. In other words, these cities and their administrations blatantly disregard federal immigration laws. They thumb their collective noses at the federal government and our laws.
We had a federal law called the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA. Mr. Obama decreed that the federal government would not obey DOMA and ordered all federal departments and agencies to ignore it. This went hand in hand with his order to ignore immigration and customs immigration enforcement and federal laws concerning illegal immigration enforcement at the borders and in sanctuary cities. Mr. Obama swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution but has elected to pick the laws he orders the Justice Department to enforce.
We have federal laws against marijuana sale and use on federal property. Several states have passed laws usurping federal law, now allowing their citizens to sell, use and grow marijuana openly on federal property, a federal crime, a felony. Half of the land in the western United States belongs to the federal government, taken through congressional fiat. Does anyone know the last time the federal government arrested someone on those federal lands for smoking, growing or selling marijuana? Marijuana supporters espouse that smoking (medical) marijuana helps prevent pain. There must be a lot of pain in those states, and no worldly medicine that can relieve it except marijuana.
Cherry picking which federal laws to obey and not to obey leads to a lawless society. If something is the law, obey it. Regardless of which laws Mr. Obama likes or dislikes, the fact remains that he swore an oath to obey all of them. If he does not like or agree with a particular federal law, have Congress change (it); don’t just disregard it.
The Supreme Court, the third rung of the three equal branches of government, is not supposed to make laws; they are to interpret them. They are to interpret law juxtaposed against the Constitution. In two cases, one concerning Obamacare and one legalizing homosexual marriage, the court wrote law. Again, they did not consider the 10th Amendment to the Constitution that reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” This means that if homosexual marriage is not in the Constitution, it is up to the states and the people to decide if they want it or not.
In both cases, we the people should have the right to determine the social society of our nation, not nine appointed citizens in black robes. John Adams most eloquently described our Constitution and its impact on our form of government best when he stated: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
So the question remains — do we obey all laws of the land or just those cherry-picked by the current administration?
Christopher Acker
Delaware
