Marriage amendment delayed in committee

By Tom Strode - Nov 15, 2005

It appears the Senate Judiciary Committee will not act on a constitutional amendment to protect marriage before 2006.

The Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights Subcommittee forwarded the Marriage Protection Amendment to the Judiciary Committee in a 5-4 vote Nov. 9, but action in the full committee was blocked Nov. 17. The Senate plans to recess soon, so it appears the committee will be unable to vote on the measure until next year.

A Democratic member of the committee used the one-time privilege of holding over the amendment, thereby preventing a vote at the panel’s Nov. 17 meeting.

The subcommittee’s vote was along party lines, with Republicans in the majority. Sen. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., subcommittee chairman, called the vote “an important step in the fight to protect traditional marriage. We should act as soon as possible to protect traditional marriage.”

The amendment, S.J. Res. 1, simply reads: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”

Last year, the Senate failed even to give an up-or-down vote to a similar amendment. Supporters gained only 48 of the 60 votes needed to halt debate and allow a vote—a procedure called invoking cloture. Fifty senators voted against cloture, thereby blocking a vote.

The House of Representatives achieved a majority on the Marriage Protection Amendment in 2004 with a 227-186 vote, but it fell far short of the required two-thirds, or 290 votes, needed for passage.

Ratification of an amendment to the federal constitution requires passage by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and approval by three-fourths of the states.

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