By Tami Fitzgerald
N.C. Values Coalition
September 5, 2014
Wednesday a District Court Judge ruled that Louisiana’s Marriage Amendment is Constitutional!
In his ruling, Judge Martin Feldman concludes, “Public attitude might be becoming more diverse, but any right to same-sex marriage is not yet so entrenched as to be fundamental.” Judge Feldman also found that marriage laws should be upheld if there is a “rational basis” for the state to have enacted them, instead of the “heightened scrutiny” test used by the federal judges who have struck down other state marriage laws.
He upheld the right of states like North Carolina to recognize marriage through the democratic process, with his ruling that: “The State of Louisiana has a legitimate interest under a rational basis standard of review for addressing the meaning of marriage through the democratic process.”
Legal recognition of same-sex relationships is not inevitable no matter how much the press and the homosexual lobby may press the issue and bully those of us who do not agree
Judge Feldman is the first federal judge to rule in favor of a state Marriage Amendment since the Supreme Court’s decision last June. We believe it is likely the Supreme Court will take up the issue, and it could be as early as next year. In fact, the US Supreme Court could determine the future of marriage re-definition in the Bostic case that struck down Virginia’s Marriage Amendment as unconstitutional.
Just last Friday, August 29th, Virginia’s Prince William County Clerk of Court Michèle B. McQuigg filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court that asks the court to preserve the freedom of Americans to affirm marriage as the union of one man and one woman. “The people of Virginia – and the people of every state – should continue to have the authority to affirm marriage as the union of a man and a woman in their laws,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Byron Babione. “Courts shouldn’t decide the legal destiny of marriage in any state, let alone in every state. We are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm what it said in its Windsor decision last year: that marriage law is the business of the states.”
All four of the lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of North Carolina’s Marriage Amendment have been stayed, as of August 27th, pending the outcome of the appeal that was filed in the US Supreme Court in the Bostic case, which struck down Virginia’s Marriage Amendment. That is good news, because it means that courts in North Carolina will not force the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. At least until the Supreme Court has made the final decision on Bostic.
However, the people of North Carolina are not being represented in the ongoing battles concerning marriage re-definition. Normally, the State of North Carolina would file “friend of the court” briefs in the Virginia appeal and other cases that are on appeal around the country. However, because of Attorney General Roy Cooper’s dereliction of duty in refusing to defend our marriage laws, we do not believe our State will file any Amicus Curiae (friend of the Court) briefs in the ongoing battle to preserve natural marriage.
It is a shame that voters can’t count on elected officials like our Attorney General to defend marriage, and we continue to believe that he is derelict in his duties.
Please continue praying for our Marriage Amendment and the attorneys defending it! And don’t give up!
This article was printed with permission of the N.C. Values Coalition. To visit the N.C. Values Coalition web site, click here
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