Senator Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.) argued during the committee debate that the bill stands no chance of ultimately passing and distracts from important issues including federal debt and unemployment.
“No matter what the Senate does with this, it isn’t going through the House,” he said.
Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) agreed. He argued that Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has no intention of bringing the bill to a vote in the Senate before the next election.
“I think it's a transparent appeal to a special interest group that our Democratic friends believe is a key to their electoral victory in 2012,” Cornyn said.
In addition to the proposed legislative repeal, the Defense of Marriage Act has also faced multiple challenges in federal courts across the country.
In February 2011, President Barack Obama argued that the law was unconstitutional and instructed the Justice Department to stop defending it in federal court.
In response, members of the House of Representatives convened the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to defend the law.
However, House leaders have said that the group will not appeal all cases, particularly those that are costly and unlikely to lead to the Supreme Court.
Congressman Dan Burton (R-Ind.) also sought to respond to the Department of Justice’s refusal to defend the law. This past March, he introduced The Marriage Protection Act of 2011, which states that no federal courts would have jurisdiction to hear cases on same-sex “marriage.”
Rep. Burton said that the bill aimed to fight activist judges who “have been trying to unilaterally define marriage for too long.”
The bill currently has 26 co-sponsors and has been referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution.
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Joshua Gillespie, communications director for Rep. Burton, said Nov. 10 that he was not aware of any hearings, debates or markups scheduled for the bill. He explained that this means the bill does not have a high likelihood of advancing.
With legislation unlikely to pass in the current Congress, the issue could be decided by the courts.
Mathew Staver, founder of the non-profit litigation group Liberty Counsel, commented on the multiple challenges that the Defense of Marriage Act has seen in federal court.
“It’s hard to really predict which case could make it to the Supreme Court,” he said Nov. 10.
Staver explained that so far, no federal court of appeals has struck down the law. But if one were to do so, the Supreme Court may review the case.
“At some point in time, I’m sure that the Defense of Marriage Act will be before the U.S. Supreme Court,” he said. “I just don’t know when or which case.”