News

Aug 28, 2008

Federal District Court Judge David Carver dismissed the case against the state law Proposition 22 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), despite the May 2008 ruling in California's Supreme Court that same-sex marriage was constitutional in the state. This particular case – Smelt v. Orange County – was peculiar because, according to a Liberty Counsel press release, the same-sex couple who challenged DOMA "had no legal, same-sex union from any state."

Mat Staver is dean of Liberty University School of Law and founder of Liberty Counsel, which intervened in the case for pro-family advocates in 2004. He says the good news is that Carver upheld the dismissal of the case by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006 – and another district court judge in 2005 – on the grounds that the couple involved did not have a valid same-sex marriage from another state and that there was no fundamental right to such a relationship in the Constitution.

But the bad news, adds Staver, is that the decision could change the next time a challenge to DOMA or a state law goes to court. "Now, we still have the federal Defense of Marriage Act intact, but frankly, we should not have to continually hold our breath every time this issue goes before a judge – wondering whether a judge, with the stroke of a pen, will undermine and rewrite the definition of marriage," the attorney contends.

Staver says it is imperative that every state pass its own constitutional marriage amendment, and then pass one for the federal constitution as well, to save and protect traditional marriage. "We're talking about marriage – the very foundation of society," he adds. "We must have a permanent solution to protect traditional marriage."