All government recognized marriages should be unconstitutional by the 13th amendment

In the near term, the question about same sex marriages seems to be centered on the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. Eventually, I believe the supreme court will need to address a 13th amendment question about marriages in general. Does state recognition of marriage as providing special autonomy to individuals shielded from state interference violate the 13th amendment’s prohibitions against slavery and (implicitly) indentured servitude? While religious recognition of marriage is legitimate and may vary, the state may be justified in not recognizing any marriages so that it will continue to be able to protect against abusive labor arrangements. The equal protections of the 14th amendment applies also to the prohibitions of slavery of the 13th amendment. Taken together, the two amendments should prohibit that states from offering any special recognition and privileges to marriages that are not also available to more routine corporate charters.

Controversy over Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA): Separate laws for young and old

The point of this post is to observe there may be a valuable lesson to learn from the current controversy over the conflict of religious freedom and right to same-sex marriage. The controversy may be providing bright data about the population’s natural division by age groups. We may learn from this that the problem may be easier to solve if we can resolve the arguments in two separate groups segregated by age. Coincidentally, this provides a possible additional benefit from my earlier proposals of dividing government by age groups.

The role of charters in government by data and urgency

The existence of a charter represents good data that a group (or a couple) have expressed a commitment to cooperate together as a single person. This is strong data for influencing future policies. Part of the calculation that goes into deciding new rules is the evidence that the population will cooperate. In this case, the charters present an advantage of making the offer of committing all of its participants to cooperate with the rules. In general, it is easier to govern corporations than it is to govern individuals. Corporations have means to manage their population to assure cooperation. There are many examples of corporations making firm commitments to police their employees to conform to government regulations including regulations that impact the individual employees. The corporation itself can address disobedience without requiring any effort by the government.

My thoughts on divorce

In an earlier post, I wrote my thoughts about what I see as a possible transformation that occurs in marriage.  In particular, the marriage is a bond that strengthens the individuals in their resolve in interacting with the rest of the world.    I stated it as just my thoughts in a conversational manner. Recently,…

Thoughts on marriage

I will be a little bold tonight and talk about something that I find scary to talk about: my feelings about marriage.   It might be somewhat prompted by recent debates about defining what relationships qualify as marriage but this post is more personal.   What are my personal thoughts about a marriage that would…