{"id":51511,"date":"2015-06-18T14:36:01","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T20:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/18\/civil-rights-are-shouldnt-be-up-to-the-democratic-process.html"},"modified":"2015-06-22T15:26:35","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T21:26:35","slug":"civil-rights-are-shouldnt-be-up-to-the-democratic-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/18\/civil-rights-are-shouldnt-be-up-to-the-democratic-process.html","title":{"rendered":"Civil Rights are shouldn't be up to the democratic process"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mean, yeah, it's nice when civil right recognition happens organically, and people recognize the value of human beings of various types and protect their "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."<\/p>\n

But people can be balky. Significant portions of the populace can be reluctant to recognize rights that make them uncomfortable, or angry, or that aren't the way they were taught growing up. As with the past issue of interracial marriage, or the modern issue of same-sex marriage, waiting for everyone to have their epiphany and join in a big circle singing "Kumbaya" only allows injustice to continue. When fundamental constitutional issues are at stake, the popular sentiment — whether by vote or by representative government — must give way to the law of the land.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nAlabama Shows Why Civil Rights Shouldn’t Be Put to a Popular Vote <\/a><\/span>
\nConsider for a moment what would have followed if the Supreme Court had left laws that prohibited interracial marriage “up to the states.” This is a perfect time for such reflection, as June 12, 2015, marks the 48th anniversary of the court’s historic ruling in Loving v. Virginia, a unanimous decision that…\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mean, yeah, it's nice when civil right recognition happens organically, and people recognize the value of human beings of various types and protect their "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." But people can be balky. Significant portions of the populace can be reluctant to recognize rights that make them uncomfortable, or angry, or … Continue reading “Civil Rights are shouldn't be up to the democratic process”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,350,718,740],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-civil-liberties","category-marriage-equality","category-race-racism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8967,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/03\/14\/first_things_fi.html","url_meta":{"origin":51511,"position":0},"title":"First things first","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Mar-06 8:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"During testimony regarding a proposed Maryland state law that would ban gay marriage (but would, perhaps, recognize some sort of civil unions), James Raskin, a constitutional scholar from American University,...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5231,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/04\/22\/an_illustrating.html","url_meta":{"origin":51511,"position":1},"title":"An illustrating moment","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Apr-04 3:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A common canard among those against gay marriage and civil unions is that, well, all of those things that gay couples are looking for -- power of attorney, inheritance rights,...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5479,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/04\/if_it_walks_dow.html","url_meta":{"origin":51511,"position":2},"title":"If it walks down the aisle like a duck …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Mar-04 10:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"John Kerry has (maybe) backed making state gay civil unions functionally equivalent to marriage as far as federal rights and benefits are concerned. \"It's the first time in history that...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41349,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/05\/the-pope-and-civil-unions.html","url_meta":{"origin":51511,"position":3},"title":"The Pope and Civil Unions","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Mar-14 9:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting mixed opinion from Pope Francis -- gay marriage is right-out wrong (no surprise there), but civil unions between same-sex partners might be okay because (a) marital sacraments are not involved and (b) civil unions are used by the state to ensure various important human rights that folks are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25508,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/17\/a-little-different-civil-rights-model-for-gay-marriage.html","url_meta":{"origin":51511,"position":4},"title":"A little different civil rights model for gay marriage","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Jan-12 3:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Another group to whom the granting of a civil right was seen by some as against tha laws of nature and anathema to Biblical Christianity: women and the vote. #ddtb Embedded Link Love the Sinner? Then Support Their Rights","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26653,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/24\/well-done-maryland.html","url_meta":{"origin":51511,"position":5},"title":"Well done, Maryland","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Feb-12 6:19am","format":false,"excerpt":"Congratulations on passing a marriage equality bill through your legislature. #ddtbReshared post from +Zachary CookWow -- more fantastic news. Looks like Maryland is about to become another state with equality, two states in less than two weeks. This is the best quote from the story -- one that many Republicans\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51583,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51511\/revisions\/51583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}