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Hello all,
This is my first post in Greekchat. I would like to say that although I don't have a view as yet as to whether gay marriages should be legalized, as a law student, I would like to comment on the notion of separation of church and state.
Although as far as I can tell, courts try to *formally* uphold a separation of church and state, to some extent, judicial opinions in many areas of law like freedom of speech is informed by the court deciding whether the state's interest in maintaining morality, etc. outweighs the individual's right to expression. So, for instance, when the court considered whether child porn, hate speech, etc. should be constitutionally-allowed it factored in the state's interests, which were largely based in morality, which is largely informed by the *dominant religious views* in this country.
So although there is a formal separation of church and state, to some extent, many, if not most, laws are informed by the moral fabric of the country - which is often a result of core religious values. So at the end of the day, I think that the "separation of church and state" is not as separate as we might think.
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