Stigall: A Federal Judge Is Recognizing Same-Sex Marriages, Not Pennsylvania
By Chris Stigall
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall criticized the ruling of Federal District Court Judge John E. Jones that struck down Pennsylvania's gay marriage ban on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT.
Stigall believed the ruling requiring acceptance of same-sex marriages is being forced on the commonwealth from outsiders.
"A federal judge is recognizing the marriages. Pennsylvania is not recognizing the marriages. The federal government and the federal court system has forced Pennsylvania to recognize the marriages. Pennsylvania has not recognized anything. Pennsylvania voters have not recognized anything. The Pennsylvania legislature has not recognized anything. A federal judge has forced Pennsylvania to recognize it. There is a difference."
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Chris Stigall
He commented that issues surrounding marriage should be left up to the states to determine for themselves, without outside intervention from the federal government.
"At question here really is whether a state has the right to do what they wish to do on this issue. I, as a conservative and I believe most consistent conservatives believe, the federal government has nothing to say about marriage."
The states, he says, are the best representative of the people's judgment.
"I've always been a proponent of this being a states rights issue, the localities being the decider. More power to the states is never a bad thing. More power for states to decide what they wish to do on any issue is always a good thing. It is always better to defer to individual states."
He said that in today's climate, the federal government is abusing their authority by stripping away the rights of states.
"The federal government was designed to have a tiny amount of power. States are now just seen as serial abusers of federal power. The perverse new view is the freedom states offer is really abuse, you see. States are now just to be puppets of the federal government puppet master. It's sad. I know everybody feels this is a real accomplishment. It is not. It's a terrible defeat for the Constitution. It is not the way to make your case. There is a process. There was a way to remedy this," Stigall concluded.
