demiurgent (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
demiurgent) wrote2005-11-09 04:16 pm
demiurgent) wrote2005-11-09 04:16 pm
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It's not that marriage is now unconstitutional in Texas...
...though that is funny.
It's that the inevitable test case that challenges heterosexual marriage in Texas neither needs to be nor should be launched by homosexuals. In fact, homosexuality doesn't need to go anywhere near it.
Right now -- right now Anna Nicole Smith is going to the United States Supreme Court to challenge marital rights to a significantly higher portion of her late husband's estate. Her children are fighting her getting any.
This kind of thing happens all the time. A marriage breaks up. A man or woman remarries. Said man or woman dies before changing his/her will. His new spouse is not named in the will, but as an actual spouse is entitled to certain considerations by virtue of the marriage, absent a specific prenuptial agreement to the contrary.
Under the Texas Constitution, as of today, those spouses are not entitled to anything.
You think there won't be a son or daughter of a multimillionaire who despises their stepparent enough to put one of these challenges through?
You think they won't necessarily win their challenge, on appeal if necessary? This is directly constitutional.
And once that challenge goes through and the rights are struck down, it ripples from there. Joint tax filing? Unconstitutional. Spousal consent for a sick husband or wife who can't act on their own behalf without an explicit power of attorney? Unconstitutional. Visitation of a sick husband or wife without explicit legal codification in advance? Unconstitutional. Property inheritance without explicit alterations of wills? Unconstitutional.
Divorce settlements in circumstances where a prenup doesn't exist? No longer have to apply. There's no legal requirement or protection that states that both parties of a divorce need to be able to maintain the lifestyle they've been accustomed to any longer. (Just think what the first ultrarich Texas Oilman who realizes he can dump his wife and challenge any divorce settlement proceedings on the theory that marriage itself is unconstitutional will do.)
Gays and Lesbians want, in the end, to be treated the same as everyone else. They want to be treated with the same rights, courtesy and respect as heterosexuals.
Texas, in an astoundingly bigoted move, has rejected that. But the way they did this... they've opened the door to causing heterosexual husbands and wives... to be treated with the same rights, courtesy and respect as gays and lesbians.
Serves them right, seems to me.
It's that the inevitable test case that challenges heterosexual marriage in Texas neither needs to be nor should be launched by homosexuals. In fact, homosexuality doesn't need to go anywhere near it.
Right now -- right now Anna Nicole Smith is going to the United States Supreme Court to challenge marital rights to a significantly higher portion of her late husband's estate. Her children are fighting her getting any.
This kind of thing happens all the time. A marriage breaks up. A man or woman remarries. Said man or woman dies before changing his/her will. His new spouse is not named in the will, but as an actual spouse is entitled to certain considerations by virtue of the marriage, absent a specific prenuptial agreement to the contrary.
Under the Texas Constitution, as of today, those spouses are not entitled to anything.
You think there won't be a son or daughter of a multimillionaire who despises their stepparent enough to put one of these challenges through?
You think they won't necessarily win their challenge, on appeal if necessary? This is directly constitutional.
And once that challenge goes through and the rights are struck down, it ripples from there. Joint tax filing? Unconstitutional. Spousal consent for a sick husband or wife who can't act on their own behalf without an explicit power of attorney? Unconstitutional. Visitation of a sick husband or wife without explicit legal codification in advance? Unconstitutional. Property inheritance without explicit alterations of wills? Unconstitutional.
Divorce settlements in circumstances where a prenup doesn't exist? No longer have to apply. There's no legal requirement or protection that states that both parties of a divorce need to be able to maintain the lifestyle they've been accustomed to any longer. (Just think what the first ultrarich Texas Oilman who realizes he can dump his wife and challenge any divorce settlement proceedings on the theory that marriage itself is unconstitutional will do.)
Gays and Lesbians want, in the end, to be treated the same as everyone else. They want to be treated with the same rights, courtesy and respect as heterosexuals.
Texas, in an astoundingly bigoted move, has rejected that. But the way they did this... they've opened the door to causing heterosexual husbands and wives... to be treated with the same rights, courtesy and respect as gays and lesbians.
Serves them right, seems to me.
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I'm not suprised by the vote though. I did my part in voting against it. I even talked it up as best I could around campus and the office. In the end though, the twits won this one. We can only hope that it'll be challeneged in court and it will get stricken.
What a junky constitution we have in this state...
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(Anonymous) 2005-11-09 10:36 pm (UTC)(link)The religious minority does a good job of getting out the votes. (shakes head) I have badgered all my friends to get out and vote, but voter apathy is what kills us the most.
'A Texan thing to do,' alas, is something we will have to live down for a long time. Too many people (I use that term loosely in this case) in the goverment that are twits have come from this state. :( We have a lot to live down now...
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(Anonymous) 2005-11-10 03:19 pm (UTC)(link)According to my wife the J.D. studying for the bar, if a state constitution amendment is found to be too vague it can be thrown out.
Paul Gadzikowski, paul@arthurkingoftimeandspace.com