by Josh Eboch

Anyone who desires a constitutionally limited federal government should remember and celebrate that its limitations would necessarily cut both ways. Because if federal policy actually adhered to the letter of the Constitution, no single ideological camp could wield sufficient power to impose a set of beliefs on the entire country.

Which was exactly the point of our federalist system, and of the 10th Amendment. Beyond specific, enumerated federal powers, an infinite number of issues were intentionally left to the authority of the people through their state governments. And it is to the states that liberals, conservatives, and even libertarians must address all questions extending beyond the constitutional purview of federal authority.

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These people are concerned about their values, their traditions, their lifestyle and their beliefs.  So, many of them are calling on the federal government to “step in” and fix this “problem.”

One thing that these people are definitely NOT concerned with, though, is the US Constitution.

The Constitution was written under what’s called “positive grant.” What this means is quite simple. The federal government is authorized to exercise only those powers which are positively granted to it by the Constitution. If a power is specifically listed in the Constitution, the federal government can do it.

And, of course, the opposite holds true.  If the federal government isn’t given a power in the Constitution, then that power is “reserved.”

This principle was so important to the founding fathers that they codified it in law as the 10th Amendment:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The is not one single word in the Constitution about marriage – of any kind.  The Federal Government isn’t given the power to regulate, approve, deny, or anything else in regards to people’s marriage choices.

Period.

And if we someday decide that politicians in Washington D.C. should have the power to determine what is and is not a valid marriage, this country will be in even more danger than it is today.

The best “solution” this “problem” would be to get the government out of the marriage business altogether.