Legal Commentary

Did Sarah Palin just come out in support of the federal marriage amendment?

She says: "[I]n my own, state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that that?s where we would go because I don?t support gay marriage."

Somebody please ask her the follow-up question about the constitutional amendment. There are other things that can be done "on a federal level" to oppose same-sex marriage, and she only refers to amending the Alaskan constitution. These are important distinctions, because it is very hard to amend the U.S. Constitution and equally hard to repeal an amendment.

Nevertheless, this expressed desire to operate "on a federal level" shows no concern for the conventional conservative idea of leaving it to the states. In sliding from talking about what she's done in Alaska to the subject of federal law, she doesn't seem to have any instinct for federalism or perhaps even any awareness of it. And quite aside from any concern about the specific issue of gay marriage or the more general matter of federalism, there is a real absence of structured thinking here.

It's genuinely dismaying.

Full post as published by Althouse on October 20, 2008 (boomark / email).