Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- About the Author
- Introduction: Human Rights in the Constitutional Law of the United States
- Part I The Morality of Human Rights
- Part II The Constitutional Morality of the United States
- 4 Capital Punishment
- 5 The Question of Judicial Deference
- 6 The Right to Moral Equality
- 7 The Right to Religious and Moral Freedom
- 8 Same-Sex Marriage
- 9 Abortion
- Concluding Note
- Index
- References
8 - Same-Sex Marriage
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2013
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- About the Author
- Introduction: Human Rights in the Constitutional Law of the United States
- Part I The Morality of Human Rights
- Part II The Constitutional Morality of the United States
- 4 Capital Punishment
- 5 The Question of Judicial Deference
- 6 The Right to Moral Equality
- 7 The Right to Religious and Moral Freedom
- 8 Same-Sex Marriage
- 9 Abortion
- Concluding Note
- Index
- References
Summary
The two rights that bear most directly on the constitutional controversy addressed in this chapter are the two rights elaborated in the preceding two chapters: right to moral equality and the right to religious and moral freedom. Does what we may call “the exclusion policy” – excluding same-sex couples from civil marriage – violate either right?
WHAT IS MARRIAGE?
In their essay, “What Is Marriage?,” Sherif Girgis, Robert George, and Ryan Anderson argue that we should adhere in our law to a particular understanding of “marriage,” which, following the authors, we may call the “conjugal” understanding. According to the conjugal understanding, as the authors explain:
A couple is accurately described as “married” if and only if their relationship satisfies certain conditions, one of which is procreative – biologically procreative – complementarity.
The relationship of no same-sex couple satisfies the procreative complementarity condition.
Therefore, no same-sex couple is accurately described as “married” (according to the conjugal understanding).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Human Rights in the Constitutional Law of the United States , pp. 136 - 157Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
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