A further opting out from the European Convention on Human Rights - first enacted in 2001 to allow foreign nationals to be detained without trial or charge - would be "unavoidable in the circumstances which we face", the paper said.

THE TEXT: The critical evidence is the actual text of the Alliance For Marriage/Musgrave amendment, which Kirkpatrick omits. That in itself is a bizarre lacuna. Here it is:
"Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."
All the legal incidents thereof. That language doesn't need to be in there if you're just banning marriage for gays. It's about removing every single civil and legal protection gay couples have.