The Government is Ignoring and Breaking the Law

The Justice Department announced earlier this year that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law passed in 1996 by large majorities in both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.  Basically, the Justice Department single-handedly decided to declare the law unconstitutional and decided to stop defending it.

Now, the government has taken matters one step further.  After allowing openly practicing homosexuals to serve in the military starting in September 20th, they have now authorized military chaplains to perform same-sex marriages on military bases.  This is a direct violation of DOMA, which states that the federal government may not recognize same-sex marriages.  So, first the government decided it would stop defending the law and now it has decided that it will willfully violate the law.

Whether you support or oppose DOMA, these are dangerous steps for our government to take.  The Executive Branch cannot do the functions of the Judicial Branch (to declare a law unconstitutional) and the Legislative Branch (to change laws).  It's a gross violation of the Constitution.  The real problem is not that the government is doing this, though,  The real problem is that only a few people on the far right even care about it.  Thus, this is being positioned as a political matter and is dismissed by the majority of people as "no big deal."  But this is bigger than partisan politics and it is a very big deal.

We the people cannot just allow our government to trash the Constitution and have any expectation that we will retain any of our civil liberties.  We cannot allow the Executive Branch to acquire more and more power for itself, as it has been doing steadily for decades under both Democrat and Republican Presidents and think that we still live in a Constitutional Republic with a limited government and a balance of powers.

Whatever the law is, whether we like it or not, a law passed by Congress, signed by the President and upheld by the courts as Constitutional is the law of the land.  Until it is changed, repealed, struck down or banned by a Constitutional Amendment, it remains the law of the land.  Our country was founded on the principle of the rule of law.  The personal opinions of the current office-holders cannot supersede the law. 

When John Ashcroft was Attorney General and George W. Bush was President of the United States, they had to uphold federal laws protecting abortionists and limiting the rights of abortion protesters, even though they were personally pro-life and disliked the laws.  They did their job because they knew it was their job.

The Executive Branch has a job to do: to uphold and enforce the laws of the United States of America.  President Obama took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the Constitution assigns this job to him.  He cannot just decide to do otherwise because he disagrees with the law.  If we allow that, we are allowing our Republic to disintegrate.  That's how important this issue is.