14-July-2004 -- Catholic World News Brief
Washington, DC, Jul. 14 (CWNews.com) - The US
Senate on Wednesday voted 50-48 against continuing debate on a proposed
constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one
woman, 12 short of the 60 needed to continue and 19 short of the two-thirds
majority needed to approve an amendment.
"This is an unnecessary amendment that wrongly and certainly prematurely
deprives states of their traditional ability to define marriage," said Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, D-Connecticut, claiming that the matter was an issue of
states' rights. However, supporters pointed out that an amendment was needed in
order to prevent courts, and not voters, from deciding the issue, as happened
last November in Massachusetts when the Supreme Judicial Court decided that
denying same-sex marriage to gays was unconstitutional.
"The Senate's vote today has left the future of marriage in the hands of
unelected judges, at least for the time being," said Tony Perkins,
president of the Family Research Council. But, he added, the fight is not over.
"Pro-family forces have benefited from the debate over the past few days in
two ways: One, every time this issue is forced into the public square, the
opposition to same-sex 'marriage' among the American public grows. Second, we
now know which Senators are for traditional marriage and which ones are not, and
by November, so will voters in every state."
That was the core of the complaint by opponents of the amendment: that
supporters knew the amendment would fail, but would rather push the amendment as
a political issue during the current election cycle.
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who was
not present for the vote, said a constitutional amendment should not be used for
partisan purposes. "The floor of the United States Senate should only be
used for the common good, not issues designed to divide us for political
purposes," he said. "However, even Republicans concede that this
amendment is being offered only for political gains."
Of the 24 Catholics in the Senate, those who voted against the amendment
included Joe Biden, D-Delaware; John Breaux, D-Louisiana; Maria Cantwell,
D-Washington; Susan Collins, R-Maine; Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota; Christopher
Dodd, D-Connecticut; Richard Durbin, D-Illinois; Tom Harkin, D-Idaho; Ted
Kennedy, D-Massachusetts; Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana; Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont;
Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland; Patty Murray, D-Washington, Jack Reed, D-Rhode
Island; and John Sununu, R-New Hampshire.