Banning Same Sex Marriage is Legal in the United States

Through out the debate on the legality of banning same-sex marriage, opponents of these bans have claimed them to be illegal citing a few legal sources. Specifically they often cite: - The Full Faith and Credit Claus - Equal Protection Clause - Loving v. Virginia The Full Faith and Credit Clause, Article IV Section 1, has been used to claim that states must recognize same sex marriages preformed in other states. Yet this argument is flawed because The Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996, allows for states to decide for themselves whether or not to recognize marriages between same sex couples. This law which has never been deemed unconstitutional in its thirteen year existence; gives states the power to decide what constitutes a legal marriage makes same sex marriages legal. Yet some still claim same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional because they break the equal protection clause but this idea is also completely wrong. The Equal protection clause, Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, has been divided into three scrutiny levels and same-sex marriage falls into the rational-basis test. Based on previous Supreme Court cases, specifically United States v. Carolene Products Co., the court has ruled that any any law that falls into the rational-basis category is constitutional as long as the law in question is in question is reasonable related to governmental issues. Since the Defense of Marriage Act makes it a state government issue to decide whether to recognize same sex marriage, any law which would ban same sex marriage would not be an infraction on the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Loving v. Virginia is another supposed legal precedent that shows how how same sex marriage bans are illegal. Yet the ruling in Loving v. Virginia in no way references same sex marriage. Also the ruling in Loving v. Virginia was based on a violation of the Equal Protection Clause. As previously showed same sex marriage bans do not violate the Equal Protection Clause and so the ruling, since it is based on the Equal Protection Clause, is completely incompatible with any issue involving the legality of same sex marriage bans. The final piece of evidence showing that same sex marriage bans are legal is in Baker v. Nelson the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the state's laws prohibiting gay marriage did not violate any part of the United States Constitution, not the 1st amendment, 14th amendment, or article IV section II. The court also ruled that Love v. Virginia was not applicable to this case. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court the court dismissed the case "for want of a substantial federal question." This meant that the court felt that the Minnesota Supreme Courts ruling did not raise and constitutional question. This also set the precedent for all lower courts that laws banning gay marriage did not interfere with any part of the constitution and since many lower courts have used it in their rulings including Lockyer v. San Francisco. So in conclusion unless my opponent wishes to completely overturn numerous legal precedents and laws all found legal I find no way that same sex marriage bans can be found illegal. Defense of Marriage Act <http://thomas.loc.gov...; Equal Protection Clause <http://topics.law.cornell.edu...; United States v. Carolene Products Co. <http://supreme.justia.com...; Rational-Basis <http://www.law.umkc.edu...; Loving v. Virginia <http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com...; Baker v. Nelson <http://www.cas.umt.edu...;