Supreme Court Same Sex Marriage Argumet

[Anima]

Okay;

First, lets deal with Scalia's statement that so long as the State legislates it may be tailored.  If marriage is ruled to be a fundamental right than it becomes akin to the 2nd amendment and may not be abridged or withheld.

As such, it would be illegal to place an age restriction upon the age of marriage.  Now if we assume the age restriction placed on the 2nd amendment (a child under the age of four does not have the right to bear arms as they lack sufficient development of person to understand the right in anyway) there may be a restriction placed on children under the age of 5 (though not likely as the restriction for the second is predicated on the inherent dangerous nature of a firearm).

This would thereby make adult to child weddings legal (likely with parental consent).

I would assume that restrictions on such a basic right must be justified by a compelling interest of the state.  Is Scalia not arguing in line with that?

Scalia is arguing that if the right is granted by the State it may be restricted under reasonable, heightened, or strict scrutiny. Presently age restriction to marriage have been argued under reasonable scrutiny.

(Reasonable Scrutiny = The state must have a legitimate interest and the discrimination must be reasonably related to the furtherance of that interest).

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I would assume that restrictions on such a basic right must be justified by a compelling interest of the state.  Is Scalia not arguing in line with that?

If made a fundamental right the State may discriminate under strict scrutiny where:

Strict Scrutiny = The state must have a compelling legitimate interest, the discrimination must be narrowly tailored, and the least restrictive means of satisfying that interest.

As one would imagine this level of tailoring is much more difficult to satisfy as it is commonly argue the discrimination is not narrowly tailored or least restrictive.