That generated as much heat and animus as this topic did. Please help me welcome a man who stood up to argue and to defend what our nations highest court has now recognized as a constitutional right, professor geoffrey stone. [applause] thank you. Im delighted to be here. My talk this afternoon derives from a book that i am currently finishing titled sex and the constitution. Although the book addresses such issues as obscenity, contraception, homosexuality generally, abortion and so on, i decided to focus specifically this afternoon on the issue of samesex marriage, an issue that cuts to the very heart of the meaning of equal citizenship. In august of 1982, an Atlanta Police officer went to the home of Michael Hardwick to serve an arrest warrant for public drinking. Upon entering the home, he observed hardwick and another man engaged in oral sex. The officer placed both men under arrest for the crime of sodomy. In the case decided in 1986, the Supreme Court held that the homosexual so
The declaration tells us that rights come from god, not government. [ applause ] the constitution has a framework thats set up not as some kind of result of bureaucratic haggling, but as something is designed to protect, promote freedom. And the president is right. In many way, we are a shining city on a hill. But the hard truth is that not everyone is sharing in this citys slender and glory. A shining city is perhaps all the president sees from the port ko of the white house and the ver randa of thiz ranch, where everyone seems to be doing well. But theres another city. Another part to the shining city. The part where some people cant pay their mortgages. And most young people cant afford one. Where students cant afford the education they need and middle class parents watch the dreams they hold for their children evaporate. In this part of the city, there are more poor than ever. More families in trouble. More and more people who need help, but cant find it. Even worse. There are elde
Passage. We have a rare moment for the Senate Foreign Relation Committee and the senate as a whole to demonstrate this. And coming together to demonstrates our ability to give constructive input on one of the most Important National Security Issues of the day and strain our divisive influences in this body and demonstrate our ability to overcome them and show the relevance and Work Together to come together in the best interest of our nation. With that, madam president , i yield the floor. Next, the Supreme Court Court Hears Oral Argument in several samesex marriage cases. Then we open it up to you and later a debate on samesex marriage on todays washington journal. Throughout the day we have been seeing comments from a number viewers. This one from maxwell who says it has been legal in the uk for a while and their society is still entact and no one elses marriages have been ruined. Get the government out of marriage all together. Facebook. Com cspan. And on twitter jennifer who covere
Follows on individuals and families couldntntravenes the basic constitutional equivalent to dignity. Abiding purpose of the 14th amendment is to preclude relegating classes of persons to secondtier status. What do you do with the windsor case where the court stressed the federal government a stark deference to states when it comes to matter of domestic relations . States do have primecy over domestic relations except that their laws must respect the Constitutional Rights of persons. Windsor couldnt have been clearer about that. Here we have a whole class of people who are denied the equal right to be able to join in the very extensive Government Institution that provides protection for families. You say join in the institution. The argument on the other side is that theyre seeking to rere redefine the institution. Every definition i looked up prior to about a dozen years ago defined marriage as a unity between a man and a woman as husband and wife. Obviously if you succeed, that core d
It was about 30 seconds before we completely activated all of the resources we had to bear. Its been now less than 24 hours. You see we have a couple thousand more people on the streets in baltimore. To my knowledge theres been no incidents. This morning were still concerned what might happen this evening. Were continuing to bring more people in from around the state and around the country. Were going to put as much manpower and as many resources we can to make sure that we do not have that kind of situation. Reporter you did nothing until the you could do nothing until the mayor made a phone call . Governor hogan no. What i told you is we had been working all week and called up the National Guard. We already activated the Emergency Command Center and when the mayor requested we brought them in. Reporter between 3 00 and 6 00 yesterday, you could do nothing . Governor hogan we did quite a bit but we waited until the mayor asked for us to come in. We didnt think it was appropriate to co