Editorial Of The Day

From the editorial board of the Tampa Bay Times:

Attorneys general throughout the country are wrestling with whether to defend state bans on same-sex marriage, according to the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School. Some, like Bondi, say defending state law is their job regardless of personal beliefs. In Arkansas, for example, the attorney general will defend the state’s same-sex marriage ban even though he supports gay marriage. The more enlightened, such as Kentucky’s attorney general, have opted not to defend laws they see as unjust or unconstitutional. Bondi declined to address the issue with the Times’ editorial board. Bondi should follow her counterparts in Nevada, Virginia and Pennsylvania who have refused to defend their states’ same-sex marriage bans. The law once upheld slavery, denied women and blacks the right to vote, segregated schools and banned interracial marriage. In time, the courts will continue to act as they did in those situations and overturn all discriminatory same-sex marriage bans. It makes no sense to defend them, and Florida should abandon a fight it cannot win legally or morally.

(Tipped by JMG reader Rich)