Public Policy: For the Children

[Geee]

American Spectator:

 

Let’s look at some more public policy issues in which children or their views have been brought to bear:

Gun Control: On December 14, 2012, 20 children and six adult staff were killed in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut. The ensuing campaign for new federal gun controls not only consistently referred to the deceased children, but on January 16, 2013, the White House released letters from children in favor of new gun controls.

Immigration: On June 15, 2012, the President announced a program to defer the deportation of individuals who had been brought illegally into this country when they were children, nicknamed by politicians and the media as “Dreamers.” The deferment would be for two years and renewable. His program was for individuals who came at age 15 or younger and were now as old as 30. A boy brought to this country at age 15, and is now 30, would have made a conscious decision to remain in this country illegally for 12 years after reaching age 18. Moreover, since this program was not the product of ordinary legislation or rulemaking, we have no formal governmental explanation to support the cut-off of age 16 (as opposed to 18) and age 30 (as opposed to, what, 40?).

Same-Sex Marriage: Beginning in the 1990s, some states changed their laws to allow adoption of children by same-sex couples. It was argued that adoption by same-sex couples was better for children than living in foster care (and same-sex couples wanted to prove that they could be adequate parents). The fact that a number of such children existed by 2013 was used in the June 26, 2013, U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor, to declare a part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. Justice Kennedy wrote:

[DOMA] humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples. The law in question makes it even more difficult for the children to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families in their community and in their daily lives…