Barely a week after their Senate counterparts defeated a proposal to ban same-sex “marriages,” House members passed legislation using different methods to achieve a similar goal.
On July 22, the House voted 233–194 to pass the Marriage Protection Act (MPA) of 2004. If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the bill would prevent federal courts, including the Supreme Court, from ruling on the legality or constitutionality of cases involving part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The DOMA is a 1996 law that passed convincingly in Congress and was signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton. It defines marriage under federal law as between a man and a woman. The DOMA also says states cannot be forced to recognize same-sex “marriages” performed by other states.
The MPA, not yet been introduced in the Senate, would limit the courts’ jurisdiction over claims against one part of DOMA — the provision that prevents states from being forced to accept other states’ homosexual “marriages.”
Opponents of same-sex “marriage” fear that the Constitution’s “full faith and credit” clause, which requires states to recognize legal contracts of other states, could be used to force gay “marriage” on states that have banned it.
However, the MPA would not prevent courts from ruling on cases about the part of DOMA that defines marriage only in heterosexual terms for federal services, thus limiting the federal benefits of marriage to heterosexual couples.
The recent legalization of same-sex “marriage” in Massachusetts, coupled with Supreme Court rulings on gay rights, has caused many lawmakers to seek ways to limit what they consider a runaway federal judiciary in the area of marriage law.
The bill’s proponents feared a federal court could strike down DOMA unless prevented by law. The Senate voted in July against a constitutional amendment banning same-sex “marriage” in all 50 states. The House plans a vote on a similar bill by the November elections.
(ABP)
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