by nat-colley
Marriage vs Civil Union
7:22 am in Law and Society by nat-colley
An interesting but not very coherent discussion from the New York Times. It needs either editing or a director, since it seems to assume we know both the speakers and the topic. To clarify, the speakers Balkin and Althouse are law school professors and the idea is that all marriages would be ‘downgraded’ to civil unions. Pre-existing marriages would be grandfathered in. This makes heterosexual and homosexual unions equal under the law. Then those who believe in the sanctity of marriage on religious grounds could have a marriage in their house of worship, which would be the only place where you could get a ‘marriage’. Apparently, it would thus be purely a religious ceremony and have no more legal force than a baptism.
A related, provocative and interesting article suggests government stay out of marriage altogether.
What do you think?
First and foremost, you are very right, this video is a mess! I can’t exactly say I follow all of what they are saying, it’s like they cut out the first 30 minutes of the conversation.
My partner and I have agreed for a long time that the institution of marriage is broken. I would wholeheartedly agree with Civil Unions for all. After all, it’s essentially a civil contract between two people.
Here’s an article I wrote on my blog on the topic: http://www.legaladmin.info/2008/11/life-liberty-and-pusuit-of-happiness.html