Thursday, October 12, 2006
Amendment doesn't belong in Virginia's Bill of Rights
From the RoundTable blog
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M. Caldwell Butler
Butler, of Roanoke, was a Republican minority leader in the Virginia House of Delegates before representing the Sixth congressional district in the House of Representatives.
A significant guideline to constitution change, set forth in the 542-page Report of the Commission that led to the last major revision of the Virginia constitution in 1971, reads as follows:
"A constitution embodies fundamental law. It follows that a constitution is not a code of laws, and that unnecessary detail, not touching on fundamental matters, ought to be left to the statute books. Once the fundamentals have been provided for, most other matters can safely be left to the political and legislative process."
The proposed constitutional amendment on marriage would do violence to the above stated principle in that it is addressed to a matter that is clearly the province of the legislature alone.
There are a number of laws addressed to the subject of marriage which are already included in the code. Indeed, two sections were added to the code in the late 1990s stating that marriages or civil unions "between persons of the same sex ... are ... prohibited." See Sections 20-45.2 and 20-45.3.
I am not aware of any precedent for a proposed constitutional amendment addressed to something already addressed by the code itself.
The first constitution of Virginia included a Bill of Rights that is still in the present constitution. Indeed, the only changes in the Bill of Rights in the major revisions in 1971 were largely cosmetic, and the only addition thereto since 1971 was approved in 1996 ("Rights of Victims of Crime").
The General Assembly of Virginia now proposes an amendment to be placed in Article I entitled "Bill of Rights Section 15A Marriage."
The 17 sections of the Bill of Rights have been in our constitution since it was first put together in 1776, beginning with Section 1 ("Equality and Rights of Men") and ending with "Free Exercise of Religion." It was the first of the state bills of rights. The author of our "Declaration of Rights" was George Mason.
The first draft considered by the General Assembly on May 27, 1776, and widely circulated at the time, has been called by one scholar, "The most influential constitutional document in American history." It was incorporated at least in part in many if not most of the constitutions of the original 13 states and many others. It is something of which (in its present form) we can all be proud.
Every voter at the polls on Nov. 7 will be provided with an "explanation." The last paragraph of the "Explanation" of "Ballot Question Number 1" reads:
"A 'yes' vote on the proposed amendment will result in the addition of the proposed section 15A to Article I, the Bill of Rights. A 'no' vote will mean that there will be no changes made in Article I, the Bill of Rights."
If a voter is considering a "yes" vote and determined to make this language a part of the Bill of Rights, he or she might inquire: "What right is created?" Certainly, no right is created in the first paragraph of the proposal, which reads: "That only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid or recognized by this Commonwealth."
Clearly, this is not a right. It is going the other way and the wrong way!
Simply stated, the proposed language (which is mean-spirited, unwarranted, poorly drafted and already in the code itself) does not belong in the constitution of Virginia, and certainly nowhere in our Bill of Rights.
Vote "no" on Proposed Amendment No. 1 to the constitution of Virginia.
