On the “Libertarian Case” Against Gay Marriage

Political theory is not my field, but I have a rudimentary understanding of the major works that I developed when I was assigned as a teaching assistant in a freshman political science class on the subject. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to say something about this little piece of writing—“Marriage and the Limits of Contract”—by Jennifer Roback Morse of the Hoover Institution. [EDIT: Now with the Ruth Institute].

This is a self-described “Libertarian” making the “Libertarian” case for state management of reproduction and sexual activity. To get there she defines marriage as “a society’s normative institution for both sexual activity and the rearing of children,” and then argues that “society can and must discriminate among various arrangements for childbearing and sexual activity,” because “society, especially a free society, needs the institution of marriage…” Morse thinks the state should regulate private sexual activity and manage family relationships to preserve a norm about the way human beings should run their lives, even as she defines “libertarian freedom” as the “modest demand to be left alone by the coercive apparatus of the government.” Continue reading →