House OKs bill on gay marriage

WASHINGTON — The House approved a Republican bill on Thursday that would strip federal courts of their power to decide whether states have the constitutional right to refuse to recognize a same-sex marriage from another state.

The Marriage Protection Act, adopted by a 233-194 vote, would also ban the Supreme Court or lower federal courts from determining whether the act of stripping them of their powers is constitutional.

In the election-year showdown, the bill was supported by 206 Republicans and 27 Democrats. Voting against it were 176 Democrats, 17 Republicans and an independent.

The measure faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where it takes 60 votes to consider legislation. Just last week, only 48 of the 100 senators voted to bring up a companion proposal to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriages.

In a statement issued shortly before the vote, President Bush endorsed both measures but said the constitutional amendment would be even better, because it would "fully protect marriage from activist judges, including activist state court judges."

The Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 says any state can refuse to recognize same-sex marriage licenses from states where such marriages are legal. Under Thursday's proposal, each state's courts, rather than the U.S. Supreme Court or lower federal courts, would decide whether that part of the act, known as DOMA, is constitutional. So far, no court has ruled on that.

All three House members from Utah voted with the majority for the bill. However, Rep. Jim Matheson — Utah's lone Democrat in Congress — was one of just 27 Democrats who supported it.

Matheson said, "I've always supported the Defense of Marriage Act (passed several years ago), which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. This is a legislative effort to preserve that . . . to tell courts they can look at it on a state-by-state basis" in state courts, but that federal courts cannot force states to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere."

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, a co-sponsor of the bill, said, "Under Article II of the Constitution, Congress always has had this right to state which issues fall outside the jurisdiction of the federal courts. In my opinion, the definition of marriage should absolutely be one of those."

He added, "This might be the quickest and most constitutional fix we have to defend the family and traditional marriage."

Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said, "When the judicial branch loses its moral compass, it is the responsibility of the Congress to exert its authority to keep the judicial branch in check." He added that if the bill is not enacted by the Senate, "a constitutional amendment to protect the definition of marriage is the only alternative." However, the Senate killed such an amendment on a procedural vote last week.