I am extremely grateful to the three commentators for their care in reading my work and for the very high quality of their comments. Because Pamela Karlan and Michael Warner discuss related questions, I shall reply to their comments in one section and devote a separate section to David Novak’s very different arguments.
Response to Martha Nussbaum’s a Right to Marry
The question of same-sex marriage concerns every morally sensitive citizen. It has been the subject of debate everywhere, especially among scholars and intellectuals. That is why, no doubt, the Brennan Center for Justice invited me to comment on Professor Martha Nussbaum’s Essay entitled “A Right To Marry?” Our opposing views on this hotly debated question […]
Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off: Can States Abolish the Institution of Marriage
At several points in her characteristically acute discussion of the debate swirling around same-sex marriage, Professor Nussbaum suggests that perhaps the best solution to the current controversy is for the state to abandon the business of conferring marital status: “Might a good solution,” she asks, “be for the state to back out of the expressive […]