Another one bites the dust. . .

Congress and state legislatures don’t make the laws in these USA anymore. President Obama does what he pleases outside the legislative process.  Judges nobody elected have taken over deciding what will be the law of the land.  And then we wonder why folks have little confidence in our political and judicial institutions!

Of course this is about Wisconsin and US District Court, Judge Barbara Crabb, struck down as unconstitutional Article XIII, Section 13 of Wisconsin’s state constitution, which reads: “Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.”  The people of Wisconsin voted in a referendum to amend the constitution with that article in November 2006.  This is the Wisconsin which has had liberal (wasn't one even socialist) mayors in Madison and Milwaukee and yet the state voted to retain what was the status quo in 2006.  So don't complain when gay marriage ends up the same kind of dividing wall as abortion (another usurpation of the legislative process). 

The issue is this.  Judges get to decide without recourse as to their decision.  In the mean time, things wind their way to the SCOTUS but by the time it gets there, the thing has already become normative.  Judges need to stop making the law and start explaining and applying it. 

This is not simply about the issue in question but the process.  How do we add a voice to the public square when the courts suddenly end the conversation?