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Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                Chris Elliott                        Zach Lee                  Christian Palmer
                Geronimo Rodriguez       Blake Whitaker       Kristen Young

Leave state constitutions well enough alone

On Tuesday, Wisconsin took a step toward joining the ranks of states that define marriage in their constitutions. By a vote of 62-31, the State Assembly decided to put an amendment that bans gay marriages and civil unions on the state ballot in November.

Texas passed a similar amendment in 2005 with overwhelming support for Proposition 2.

It wasn't right then, and it isn't right now.

Supporters of such legislation want voters to focus on homosexuality and to base their votes on their opinions of gay rights. They want the debate to degenerate into an argument over morality so that voters are not watching while legislators defile the state constitution and the political framework it represents.

Massachusetts is the only state to legalize gay marriages, and though some states recognize civil unions between homosexual couples, gay partnerships are illegal in the vast majority of the United States -- there are laws that specifically state a man cannot marry another man.

Laws have one pesky weakness, though: They can be found unconstitutional. Amendments, on the other hand, are much more difficult to repeal. 

Legislators who would see a social issue written into the very fabric of a constitution have no respect for the document. Constitutions are the foundations for political power structures and should only be amended to further define that power structure or to expand the rights of the people.

The Bill of Rights is a perfect example of the loosely defined liberties with which constitutions should deal. Constitutions should be permanent and grant the people vast rights. Laws should be there to restrict those rights.

Since the U.S. Constitution took effect in 1789, it has been amended only 27 times, for an average of about one amendment every 8 years. And if the Bill of Rights is taken out of that equation (all 10 of those amendments were ratified by 1791), that number stretches to about one every 12.5 years.

Compare that to the 439 times the Texas Constitution has been amended since 1836.