What is Marriage?

I am grateful to Michael P. for linking to and quoting from Andy Koppelman's Commonweal magazine review of What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense and inviting readers to "read Andy's review and see whether you agree with his evaluation of the book." It was no doubt an oversight that he did not urge readers to read the book itself, too, so that they could responsibly evaluate the accuracy of Koppelman's exposition of the central claims of the book and the validity of the points he tries to score against those claims. (Or perhaps that was simply assumed.) For those who do in fact wish to read the book as well as the review, here is a link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-is-marriage-sherif-girgis/1112358981. While readers are at it, perhaps they would like to have a look at the set of exchanges between Koppelman and the authors of *What is Marriage?* that appeared after publcation of the Harvard Journal of Law and Publc Policy article on which the book is based. See here:  http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/12/2263/ and here: http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/12/2263/; and here: http://balkin.blogspot.com/2010/12/that-elusive-timeless-essence-of.html; and here: http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/01/2350/. Nothing would please me more than for people to read through these exchanges and decide for themselves who is offering the superior argument. As for the Commonweal review of What is Marriage? my co-authors and I will be publishing a formal response at Public Discourse, which will raise the question whether it is they or Professor Koppelman who is relying on conclusory and question-begging appeals.