Jack Balkin notes that the Federal Marriage Amendment does far more
than its supporters claim. It explicitly would forbid the conferring of any of the "legal incidences" of marriage on unmarried couples or groups. Forget gay marriage - this is absolutely astounding. It would appear to not just forbid states from enacting sweeping civil unions laws, it could also forbid numerous other things affecting all unmarried couples. Taken to its logical extreme it could really make all single people second class citizens.
