Better:

The Alliance for Marriage has proposed new language for a Federal Marriage Amendment,

Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.

This language has just been introduced in the Senate by Sens. Allard, Brownback, Enzi, Inhofe, Miller, Lott, and Santorum.

     For reasons I mentioned last month, I think this is much better, because it clearly lets state voters and legislatures enact civil unions by statute (though not by a constitutional amendment). I still have some objections. First, I don’t see why states that do want to set up gay marriages should be barred from doing so. Second, I don’t think the U.S. Constitution ought to protect state citizens and legislators from the overreaching of their own state courts interpreting state constitutions (at least where no individual constitutional right is violated by this). State courts’ misconduct should be dealt with by the state voters and legislators through the state constitutional amendment process. Third, this proposal would probably block voters and legislatures from expressly enacting civil unions by constitutional amendment (though it will leave them free to enact them by statute, either legislatively or by initiative.)

     Nonetheless, this proposal seems much better than an earlier version that various people, including me, have criticized. I’m glad to see that the criticisms seem to have had some effect.