by Karl Denninger
Market-Ticker.org
It comes from an unlikely corner of the nation, and is probably a mostly-unintended consequence.
Alabama is set to strike marriage licenses from the books, replacing it with a ministerial requirement that the clerks record private contractual arrangements for marriage.
This is a potential watershed. Marriage “licenses” were put into place by the states as a means of enforcing racial segregation. Nobody likes talking about that, but that you refuse to discuss something doesn’t make it untrue; it just marks you as dishonest.
Along the way in the 100+ years since the right of the people to negotiate and enter into a private contractual arrangement to live together and raise a family has been destroyed. The State has come in with ever-more onerous claims on both property and children, culminating today in states that will actually arrest you if you let your eight year old kid walk to school or, for that matter, walk to a park a couple of blocks from your house.