Repudiation: Rick Santorum on Basic Civil Rights

Mr. Santorum continues to think that a lack of equality is appropriate for the United States.  In the above clip, he makes a very simple mistake.  He calls marriage a privilege.  The Supreme Court of the United States has a different definition.  The following from the decision in Loving v. Virginia that struck down state laws preventing persons of different races from marrying.

Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival. Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, 541 (1942). See also Maynard v. Hill, 125 U.S. 190 (1888). To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State.

Pardon me for quoting the first line of that paragraph written by then Chief Justice Warren again.

Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.

Mr. Santorum is correct that marriage is an essential good.  Denying marriage equality is discrimination.  It is denial of a basic civil right.

Thanks to Joe My God for the heads up.