Marriage battle heats up in Congress, courts

By Tom Strode - Jun 15, 2004 - comment

The battle over marriage continues to heat up.

Defenders of the biblical and traditional definition of marriage lost an important vote in the U.S. Senate in July but gained a victory in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Meanwhile, two lesbians who received a marriage certificate in Massachusetts have gone to court to seek recognition of their union in Florida.

The Federal Marriage Amendment failed in a procedural vote in the Senate July 14. FMA, which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, fell far short of the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture and break a filibuster. The vote was 50-48 against invoking cloture, thereby preventing a direct vote on the amendment.

The House, however, approved by a 233-194 vote the Marriage Protection Act July 22. The bill would bar federal courts, even the Supreme Court, from reviewing the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 measure that protects the rights of states not to recognize another state’s homosexual “marriages” and prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex “marriage.”

Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said of the House’s action, “We support any measure that will try to rein in the judiciary, but we support it, understanding that going after judicial tyranny with legislation is like hunting a hungry tiger with a BB gun. An amendment is going after the tiger of judicial tyranny with an elephant rifle.

“It does send a message to the judiciary that people are really getting fed up with their attempts to become our unelected rulers,” he said, adding the bill “is still only a law, which is subject to judicial interpretation and could be stricken down by the courts, as opposed to a constitutional amendment, which is sovereign over the court—not subject to the court’s interpretation.”

Nancy Wilson and Paula Schoenwether filed suit July 20 in a Tampa, Fla., federal court challenging the Defense of Marriage Act and seeking recognition of their “marriage” in Florida. It marked the first time a homosexual couple with a marriage license sought recognition of their union in their home state.

Further Learning

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