The Constitution, on marriage. Like it or not it's the supreme law of the land

Alright I'm sure at this point everyone has heard about North Carolina amending their constitution to criminalize same sex marriages. I've come across several people saying something along the lines of "well the voted for it so tough for the gays" well slow down a moment...

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.

That right there is the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Sum it up, the Constitution is more or less the final say in legal matters. Sure the U.S. Supreme Court likes to think that it is the final say, but they're only the final say on whether a law goes against the Constitution or not. Anyway moving on, there's more to talk about with the Constitution.

Incorporation - Constitutional law. The process of applying the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states by interpreting the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause as encompassing those provisions. 


 - Black's Law Dictionary 3rd Pocket Edition

Alright, what that basically means is that the Bill of Rights is applied to both the Federal government AND the States. Before it was only interpreted as applying to the Federal government.

So what does all this have to do with North Carolina and people voting for what they want?

Well... the Constitution, not the voters reigns supreme.

To pack it all together, basically it means that because of the 14th Amendment, the Bill of Rights now applies to the States. So now State government cannot pass legislation that violates the Bill of Rights.

Which now walks into Issue Two of this whole thing.

Does banning same-sex marriage violate the Constitution?

Well it can go either way right now. Flash back to 2008 and California's Prop 8. Passed but just a bare majority, like 53% or something like that. Shortly after it went to court and a Federal district judge ruled it unconstitutional. Violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The decision was later affirmed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Though on the other hand other states have laws banning same-sex marriages, but it might just mean no one there challenged the law's constitutionality.

Though the thing that's really scary about this, isn't even the whole same sex marriage thing, it's that there are A LOT of Americans there who don't even know how the Constitution works. I chalk that up to a failure on the part of the education system.

Many people, well many people on Facebook anyway, think that once something is voted on by a majority it's set in stone. Wrong, has to pass constitutional muster first.

So does this pass constitutional muster? Well it hasn't in the 9th Circuit, and if the Supreme Court decides to see the case and agrees with the 9th Circuit then across the country same-sex marriage bans will not pass constitutional muster, so it won't matter how big a majority votes for a ban, it's still not becoming law.