Here is Randy Weber, a Republican congressman from Texas, wasting Congress’s time with a bill that would ban federal recognition of same sex marriages of couples who don’t live in marriage equality states:
The State Marriage Defense Act will simply require federal agencies to look to a person’s legal residence when determining marital status and application of federal law. The 10th Amendment was established to protect state sovereignty and individual rights from being seized by the Federal Government. For too long, however, the Federal Government has slowly been eroding state’s rights by promulgating rules and regulations through federal agencies. I drafted the State Marriage Defense Act of 2014 to help restore the 10th Amendment, affirm the authority of states to define and regulate marriage, as well as, provide clarity to federal agencies seeking to determine who qualifies as a spouse for the purpose of federal law. By requiring that the Federal Government defer to the laws of a person’s state of legal residence in determining marital status, we can protect states’ constitutionally established powers from the arbitrary overreach of unelected bureaucrats.
This bill is, of course, going nowhere, but that doesn’t mean hate group leader Tony Perkins isn’t excited about it:
Family Research Council strongly supported the Defense of Marriage Act, and disagreed with the Court’s decision in Windsor. However, if the federal government is required to defer to state determinations of which of their residents are “married,” it must defer to those determinations in all fifty states – not just those that have redefined marriage. The State Marriage Defense Act is consistent with the ruling in Windsor, which reiterated that states have the “historic and essential authority to define the marital relation.” The current Obama administration policy is doing the very thing which the Court condemned – “creating two contradictory marriage regimes within the same State.” The State Marriage Defense Act serves to protect state definitions of marriage against what the Court called efforts “to put a thumb on the scales and influence a state’s decision as to how to shape its own marriage laws.”
Joe actually has a hunch that the Family Research Council authored the bill:
Since Weber, a freshman rep and former air conditioner repairman, has previously only authored one failed House resolution, I suspect his bill was actually written by the Family Research Council, who jointly announced its introduction yesterday with an appearance by Weber on Tony Perkins’ national radio show.
The bill has twenty-seven co-sponsors, including such intellectual heavyweights as Michele Bachmann and Louie Gohmert.
Wonkette’s reaction is delightful:
Given that even Utah briefly recognized gay marriage, we are pretty sure that this legislation isn’t going to go anywhere, let alone have a chance in hell of passing the Senate with Harry Reid being the badass that he is. However, it is a good reminder that
there has always and forever been only one form of marriage which is between a man with a PENIS and a woman with governmentally regulated LADYPARTSthe GOP continues to hate on the gays in new and inventive ways.
New, inventive, and again, an utter waste of Congress’s time in order to reassure the Family Research Council that wingnuts still love them.
