Congress Must Protect Marriage and Rein in Judges Now

Washington, D.C.—In his third State of the Union address, President Bush asserted that the strength of America rests on the fundamental “pillars of civilization”—marriage, the family, and religious congregations—that government cannot replicate or replace. 

Marriage is the fundamental pillar that roots all societies. By law we need to uphold and defend the institution of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. 

Our nation now faces a judicial threat to this institution. Activist judges who legislate from the bench threaten marriage without considering the societal implications.  Policymaking decisions of this kind should not be made by lifetime-appointed judges, but by elected lawmakers who are accountable to the public. 

Congress has, among other issues, denied all federal courts the authority to hear a class of cases to protect trees.  It certainly is constitutional for Congress to uphold the rights of individual states to protect their definitions of marriage. 

Congress has the clear authority to pass the Marriage Protection Act.  Abuses of authority by federal judges on a whole range of issues have brought us to this point. The Constitution provides that “the judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.”  The lower federal courts are entirely creations of Congress, as is the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court… “with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.”  

We are at a cultural crossroads. It is up to us—this generation of Americans—to defend and protect our Constitution and marriage in America. Congress must not allow four unelected Massachusetts judges to rewrite the laws of the other 49 states and redefine marriage in the process. 

The Marriage Protection Act is a proper exercise of checks and balances.  Far from violating the “separation of powers,” legislation that reserves to state courts the jurisdiction to hear and decide certain classes of cases is actually an exercise of one of the very “checks and balances” provided for by the Constitution. Each branch of government, including Congress, has a duty to use all its powers to prevent overreaching by the other branches.

Therefore, it now falls to Congress to draw a bright line that will show judges they can no longer circumvent the Constitution and the will of the people. Our Constitution specifically gives Congress the authority to limit the power of the courts by statute, and for the sake of the Republic, it is high time we exercised it.  We must do so before the federal courts make it too late to save traditional marriage.