Prudent path

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Like it or not, we're now engaged in a critical debate of the nature, purpose and legal status of marriage.

President Bush has sharply focused this issue by calling for a constitutional amendment upholding marriage as a union between a man and a woman as husband and wife.

How we decide this question -- and it will be decided, one way or the other -- will shape the future of our society and the course of constitutional government in the United States.

A series of significant judicial decisions have forced this issue upon the nation, beginning with a trial court judge in Hawaii, then a superior court judge in Alaska and then the Vermont Supreme Court. In November, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared that traditional marriage upholds persistent prejudices and that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry.

Officials in San Francisco have issued thousands of fraudulent marriage licenses to same-sex couples, intentionally violating clear state law, and sued to have a judge declare California's marriage laws discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The effect of these decisions, and intent of the litigation strategy behind them, is unmistakable: to establish same-sex marriage as a civil right that the federal government will then have a constitutional obligation to secure nationwide. Advocates of gay marriage demand, and will accept, nothing less.

In order to reach this outcome, judges disregard thousands of years of custom and experience, flout the laws of every society, and thumb their noses at the beliefs of every major religious tradition. They say that a legal preference for traditional marriage is "irrational."

This question is not about rights but redefining marriage by judicial decree. By circumventing the legislative process, overriding long-standing majority opinion and excluding the people from so fundamental a decision as marriage, these judges threaten our democracy and the rule of law.

In this debate, the guiding principle must be clear: Marriage is a unique institution that is central to the welfare of society -- and it must be protected.