In Md., Sen. Miller gets smacked down

Kudos to Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks for his thorough take-down of Maryland State Sen. Thomas V. Mike Miller over the issue of marriage equality.

Miller, the Senate president who has been in office for 40 years, opposes same-sex marriage and civil unions and told the Sun that marriage is “blessed by God” and meant to further pro-creation.

Rodricks writes: “Mr. Miller, who has been in Annapolis so long they’ve already named a building after him, apparently thinks it’s OK to openly state religious belief to support a position on state law — and so much for the principle of separation.

“One assumes Mr. Miller, who entered the bar in 1967, took a constitutional law course when he was a student at the University of Maryland School of Law, and he can probably recall Jefferson’s references to “a wall of separation between church and state,” and even a few Supreme Court decisions upholding the principle. … The only argument against same-sex marriage is a religious one — and, therefore, no argument at all in a constitutional democracy where separation is cherished.”

The good news is that Miller has agreed not to stand in the way of a vote and will oppose an expected GOP-led filibuster. The second piece of good news is that the state’s mainstream media outlets are helping the cause by (finally) holding accountable those standing in the way of progress.