ACLJ
asks Washington State Supreme Court to Uphold Marriage Between One Man and One
Woman
The
American Center for Law and Justice, (Fundamentalist Christian)
February 4, 2005
Olympia, WA—The American Center
for Law and Justice, specializing in constitutional law and pro-family issues,
said today it has filed an amicus brief with the Washington State Supreme
Court asking the high court to overturn a lower court decision that declared
unconstitutional the state’s Defense of Marriage Act and called it “a
fundamental right” for people to be able to marry whomever they want.
“This lower court decision is not only wrong, it is
legally flawed,” said Vincent P. McCarthy, Senior Counsel of the ACLJ. “By
declaring the state Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, the lower court
reached conclusions that are not rooted in law. We’re hopeful that the
Supreme Court of the State of Washington will correct this injustice and
overturn the lower court decision. Marriage should remain an institution
between one man and one woman and we are hopeful the high court will come to
that conclusion.”
In its brief, the ACLJ argues that there is no
fundamental right to same-sex marriage.
The brief states: “Despite a total dearth of authority
for much of its analysis, the court below redefined marriage for the entire
state of Washington.” The brief argues that “the trial court’s novel
ruling was based on a flawed understanding of the Supreme Court’s marriage
decisions, as well as a complete disregard for the Court’s substantive due
process jurisprudence.”
The brief asserts that “it is absurd to suggest that
the Supreme Court’s marriage cases are not limited to the historical
institution of marriage as a union of one man and one woman. All of the
Court’s marriage cases are anchored to the traditional definition of
marriage.”
The brief also points out that in the 2003 U.S. Supreme
Court decision regarding sodomy in Lawrence v. Texas, the high court
explicitly cautioned against taking its holding too far—which is exactly
what the lower court did, according to the brief. The Supreme Court said
Lawrence did “not involve whether the government must give formal
recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter.”
In addition to the Washington State case, the ACLJ is
also involved in defending the institution of marriage in Oregon, Connecticut,
New Jersey, and in Nebraska where the ACLJ is assisting the Nebraska Attorney
General in defending that state’s Defense of Marriage Act.
The American Center for Law and Justice is based in
Washington, D.C.
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