Marriage Protection Amendment

MARRIAGE PROTECTION AMENDMENT -- (House of Representatives - September 30, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 801, proceedings will now resume on the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 106) proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage.

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished ranking member for yielding me this time, and I thank him for those kind words.

Mr. Speaker, today the drumbeat of political demagoguery has reached its crescendo as the House prepared to consider an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning marriage between persons of the same gender. This amendment does not belong in our Constitution. It is unworthy of this great Nation, and the Senate could not even muster a simple majority to consider it, much less the requisite two-thirds to adopt it.

We have amended the Constitution only 27 times in our history. Constitutional amendments have been used to enhance and expand the rights of citizens, not to take them away.

The Constitution was amended to add the Bill of Rights, protecting freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the right to be secure in our homes; 10 amendments for protection of individual rights and liberties. We amended the Constitution to wipe away permanently the stain of slavery, to expand the right to vote, to expand the right of citizenship, to allow for the direct election of Senators, and to allow for the income tax.

Now we are being asked to amend the Constitution again to single out a single unpopular group and say permanently, you cannot even attempt to convince the legislature of your State to give you the right to marry. We have certainly never amended the Constitution on the mere speculation that a court might rule a law unconstitutional. No court has struck down as unconstitutional the Defense of Marriage Act that we passed 8 years ago. There is not even a case pending before any appellate court in this country today. There has not been a single trial-level court decision holding the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional; and yet we are told this necessity is imposed upon us. We must protect marriage now. What an imaginary threat.

In fact, the amendment before us is a new version of the amendment. It was not introduced until the end of last week. Although this issue has been the subject of four hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, this proposed amendment and its potential impact on State marriage laws, historically a right of the States, has not.

When the sponsor of the amendment appeared before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, she was not prepared to comment on a similar version or any version other than the one she had introduced, which is not the one today before us.

The Committee on the Judiciary has not marked up this amendment, either in subcommittee or full committee, although the designation of the oak tree as the national tree has merited such careful deliberation. That is a first. My Republican friends, as amendment-happy as they are, have never previously skipped over committee consideration to bring a just-introduced constitutional amendment to the floor. But I understand them. What is the Constitution between friends? Why should we consider it carefully?

As the ranking member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, I am normally called upon to explain proposed constitutional amendments. Explaining this one requires some extra effort. From what, precisely, would the so-called marriage protection amendment protect marriage? From no-fault divorce? From legalized fornication? From the failure of States to incarcerate adulterers, perhaps? No. Evidently, the threat to marriage, so-called, is the fact that there are thousands of people in this country who very much believe in marriage, who very much want to marry, who may not marry under the laws of the various States of this country, but whose fellow citizens may conceivably one day permit them to do so; and that we must prevent.

I have been searching in vain for some indication of what might happen to my marriage or to the marriage of anyone in this room if loving couples, including couples who have had children for years, are permitted to enjoy the blessings of matrimony. If there is a Member of this House who believes that his or her own marriage would be destabilized or destroyed by a same-sex marriage somewhere in America, I would welcome an explanation as to what you think would happen to your marriage and why. Any takers?

The overheated rhetoric we have been hearing is reminiscent of the bellicose fearmongering that followed the Supreme Court's 1967 Loving v. Virginia, which struck down State prohibitions against interracial marriage. The Supreme Court had overstepped its authority, we were told. The Supreme Court had overridden the democratic will of the majority. The Supreme Court had signed a death warrant for all that is good and pure in this Nation.

Fortunately, we have survived as a Nation; and we are the better for it.

In the not-too-distant future, people will look back on these debates with the same incredulity we now view the segregationist debates of years past.

This amendment does more than it purports to do. It would preempt any State law or legislature from passing a law allowing people of the same gender to marry, even if that law was approved by the legislature or, for that matter, by referendum of the people. This is not to protect the States; this is to protect a notion against the democratic will of the majority of the people in the States. Read the first sentence: any such marriage would be unconstitutional.

Proponents of this amendment have already tried to use a similar prohibition against same-sex marriage to attack domestic partner benefits in courts. So do not tell me this is only about marriage. I do not believe it. It says nothing in this amendment about recognition of marriages from one State to another. If you want to allow democratic majorities to have their way within their own borders, this amendment will do the exact opposite.

There are many loving families who deserve the benefits and protections of the law. They do not live just in New York or San Francisco or Boston. They live in every one of the 435 congressional districts in the United States. They are not from outer space, they are not a public menace, and they do not threaten anyone. They are our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends, our siblings, our parents, and our children. They deserve to be treated fairly. They deserve to have the rights of any other family.

I regret that this House is being so demeaned by this debate. It saddens me that this great institution would sink to these depths even on the eve of an election. We know this is not going anywhere. We know it is merely a political exercise. Shame on this House for playing politics with bigotry.

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. KOLBE. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. NADLER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the distinguished majority leader said that this amendment is about protecting children. With all due respect, it has nothing to do with protecting children. Gay people, lesbian people raise children today. They have children. They raise them. The laws of many States permit them to adopt children and they do. What this amendment is aimed at doing is aimed at preventing any State from bringing some stability to the lives of those children by allowing their lesbian or gay couples who have legal custody of those children, who are raising those children, to be able to get married. And this amendment says never mind what the electorate says, never mind what the legislature says, we do no want those parents to be able to be married.

So do not tell us this is about protecting children. Whatever it is about, it is not about that.

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