Washington D.C., Jul 22, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Major pro-family groups congratulated the House of Representatives for passing the Marriage Protection Act, but said it is only a a short-term solution until a constitutional amendment can be passed.
The House approved a bill Thursday to strip the federal courts of jurisdiction over same-sex marriage cases. The Marriage Protection Act was adopted 233 to 194. Utah Republican Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon and Democrat Jim Matheson voted for the legislation.
GOP sponsors described the bill as a fallback measure that would prevent federal courts from ordering states to recognize gay marriages that are permitted by other states. The bill, drafted by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., would prevent such a ruling by denying all federal courts, including the Supreme Court, jurisdiction to rule on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 federal law that says that no state has to recognize same-sex unions established in any other state.
Robert Knight, from the Culture and Famly Institute said that "lawless judges are unilaterally destroying marriage by imposing a nonsensical version on us. They want to use the law to force us to say that a wedding without a bride is just like any other wedding. The mark of an oppressive government is when it forces its citizens to lie. Pretending that a marriage without a bride or without a groom is still a marriage would be a government-imposed lie that would reach down into our communities, undermine marriage itself and put more children at risk."