June 4, 2013 by David K. Sutton
Conservatives Love When Big Government Legislates Morality
I’ve said this before, conservatives are all for big government. Conservatives are all for making government more intrusive. But I do need to add a slight clarification. Conservatives are fine with overreaching government as long as that government interference only impacts the lives of people who conservatives judge as different or immoral.
In Texas, they always do things big, including their government overreach.
Slate — Here’s a story that’s been bubbling up for a while but appears to have finally broken through to the larger news cycle, via the Associated Press:
A judge has ruled that a North Texas lesbian couple can’t live together because of a morality clause in one of the women’s divorce papers. The clause is common in divorce cases in Texas and other states. It prevents a divorced parent from having a romantic partner spend the night while children are in the home. If the couple marries, they can get out from under the legal provision—but that is not an option for gay couples in Texas, where such marriages aren’t recognized.
The issue appears to have first arisen last month during a divorce hearing for Carolyn and Joshua Compton in Collin County, Texas. According to the Dallas Morning News, District Judge John Roach Jr. decided to enforce the letter of the terms detailed in the former couple’s 2011 divorce papers, and ordered Carolyn’s partner of nearly three years, Page Price, to move out of the home she shared with Carolyn and her 10- and 13-year-old daughters. It was the ex-husband who requested the clause be enforced, according to his lawyer.
I gotta say I’ve been completely ignorant to the idea of “morality clauses” in divorce papers. Who knew? What business does government have legislating morality? What is moral and what isn’t moral? It might depend on what religion you practice or don’t practice. It’s entirely subjective, and it’s best left out of the realm of government.
If there was ever a court case that shows why same-sex marriage should be legal in all 50 states, it would be this case.
