Pubdate: Sun, 09 Dec 2012
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2012 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Page: D2

HUMAN RIGHTS ON THE VERGE

The legalization of same-sex marriage and Washington's okay to 
marijuana throws light on a permeable wall. There are human rights, 
and there are civil liberties.

Because a human being is not inherently entitled to ganja (cannabis 
use isn't the same as freedom from slavery or cruel or unusual 
punishment) smoking dope is a question of civil liberties and where, 
how and if we impose restrictions. Marriage equality transcends the 
boundary, a human right - all people are born free and equal in 
dignity and rights - and a civil liberty.

The distinction is instructive. Washingtonians are partial to 
liberty, but can be indifferent about a handful of rights.

Can we reconcile a "yes" to marijuana with support for the death 
penalty, for example?

In Snohomish County, 54 percent of voters supported I-502 to legalize 
possession of small amounts of marijuana, but a narrower 52 percent 
embraced R-74 to approve same-sex marriage.

The divide reveals why a constitutional separation of powers 
supplants mob rule (Read: Washingtonians shouldn't be voting on human 
rights in the first place.)

In October, the Herald Editorial Board strongly endorsed R 74, 
underlining that human rights are not static.

Until the 1865 adoption of the 13th Amendment, we wrote, the U.S. 
Constitution, the universal touchstone for civil and democratic 
government, OK'd chattel slavery. Voting and civil rights legislation 
passed Congress less than a half-century ago. It took until Loving v. 
Virginia in 1967 for the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down that 
state's anti-miscegenation statute which criminalized interracial marriage.

The time had finally come for marriage equality.

As the Herald's Jerry Cornfield reports, by late Thursday, marriage 
licenses had been issued to 24 same-sex couples in Snohomish County 
and 25 couples in Island County. And for many, today is wedding day.

The process has now reached its constitutional end point.

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would weigh the 
constitutionality of California's same-sex marriage ban. The court 
will also consider a section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that 
puts the kibosh on federal benefits for legally married same-sex 
couples. This will be the first time the court has considered samesex 
marriage. And as Alexis de Tocqueville wrote two centuries ago, 
"Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is 
not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question." Come 
springtime, we will have answers.

The timing is propitious. Tomorrow is International Human Rights Day, 
commemorating the passing of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights on Dec. 10, 1948. On Monday, Snohomish County's newly minted 
Human Rights Commission is hosting a celebration on the first floor 
of the of the Robert J. Drewel Building, 3000 Rockefeller Avenue, 
from 12:30 to 2:30 pm. All of us, born free and equal in dignity and 
rights, have a stake in the question.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom