Long history and tradition

Brian Chelcun and Ari Ezra Waldman take a look at Samuel Alito's dissent in the DOMA case. The Constitution doesn't say anything about marriage, so how can the Supremes declare marriage to be a fundamental right? Because of a long history and tradition. But in the case of same-sex marriage, according to Alito, there is a long history and tradition of discrimination. And that discrimination should continue.

So are gay couples "same-sex married" or simply "married"? If the former, Alito may have a point. If the latter, Alito is profoundly wrong. A fundamental right is fundamental for everyone.

Commenter Matt has an analogy. Before 1920 women had a long history and tradition of not voting. But after that date, voting was not "redefined" and there is no "female vote" separate from the "male vote". Matt says,

By Alito's argument, there can never be ANY extension of recognition of fundamental rights to groups that have traditionally been prevented from exercising those rights.

Which means we are working for marriage equality, not for gay marriage. Alas, I have 400 posts to this blog with the tag "gay marriage". So this post will use both new and old tags.