Reply #21: Yes, it matters. Here is why

[TechBear_Seattle]

I really should just set up a web page with this material; it would save a LOT of typing. :eyes:

Marriage is a very specific legal term, defined by statute. There are several hundred specific rights, protections, responsibilities and privileges granted via marriage at the fedral level, including: the ability to file taxes jointly (which is a big benefit when one person is a homemaker or is unemployed), Social Security benefits and rights of survivorship, extension of military benefits, visitation rights in federal prisons, etc. In most states, there are thousands of specific rights, protections, responsibilities and privileges, including: inherentance, powers of attorney, shared benefits for state employees, de facto guardianship of spouse's minor children from a previous relationship, and more.

To create a "marriage in everything but name", every last one of the statutes which apply to marriage would have to be replicated as applying to "civil union." A number of state require that bills be one subject only; in Washington, this would require that both houses of the state legislature pass, and the governor sign, some 1300 bills, as it would be a violation of the State Constitution to pass a single bill that altered 1300 different statutes. All future bills that touched, in any way, upon marriage would likewise have to be passes so they applied equally to civil unions. The moment something slips, you have an unequal situation.

In addition to the statutes, there is the body of common law which applies to marriage. Common law is the collection of judicial rulings and court precedents which shape how laws are interpreted and whether a given law applies in a given situation. There is no mechanism for having common law on one thing -- marriage -- apply automatically and equally to another thing -- civil unions. Each case, every matter that has added to common law with regards to marriage would have to be replicated exactly in actual court proceedings to match the centuries of marriage common law.

In the end, marriage in all but name can not and never will be equal to actual, legal marriage.