# What is going on with the SSM bill in the New York Senate?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-the-ssm-bill-in-the-new-york-senate/586622>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 23, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-the-ssm-bill-in-the-new-york-senate/586622 "2011-06-23T22:27:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 6

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-the-ssm-bill-in-the-new-york-senate/586622/101 "2011-06-28T19:24:15Z")

</div>

> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> I am willing to bet they found the notion of interracial marriage absurd too.

Not if they had ever read Othello.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-the-ssm-bill-in-the-new-york-senate/586622/102 "2011-06-28T21:07:01Z")

</div>

Well, by that standard, they wouldn’t have found the notion of same-sex marriage absurd, either, if they’d read Plato’s _Symposium_.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-the-ssm-bill-in-the-new-york-senate/586622/103 "2011-06-28T23:45:59Z")

</div>

> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Yes, I know that “Constitutional amendment” and “law” are not synonymous. But a Constitutional amendment _is_ a law (albeit a very important sort of one), and should be construed according to the same principles as other laws.

No. We recognize that “freedom of the press” extends to new technologies, like blogs. If we pass a law that puts a tax on newspapers, we don’t apply that tax to blogs unless the law explicitly says so. We update the law to include blogs, if we need to. In that way, when “those implications come up” we do not treat the constitution the same way we treat laws.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-the-ssm-bill-in-the-new-york-senate/586622.md?page=5)