Posted on: Tuesday, July 27, 2004

EDITORIAL
End congressional pandering on gay rights

It just doesn't seem to stop.

Same-sex marriage is such a red-meat political issue that the political class just cannot seem to let it alone.

The current stress is between elected officials, who read the polls and the temper of the American public, and the courts, which are required to look at the law and the Constitution.

On the elected side, the push in Congress is to restrict marriage to that between a man and a woman through such means as the Defense of Marriage Act.

On the judicial side are judges who read the law and the Constitution and conclude that denying the rights and obligations of marriage on the basis of sex or sexual orientation is wrong.

This infuriates many who say the courts have no business "legislating" on this emotional issue from the bench.

But rather than fighting the good fight in the courts, some members of Congress are attempting to make an end-run around the basic foundation of our government, with its emphasis on separation of powers and the concept of checks and balances.

The U.S. House last week passed a bill that would prohibit federal courts from hearing any challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act.

Outrageous.

Congress has no business telling the courts what they can or cannot hear.

The Defense of Marriage Act effectively says that no state can be forced to recognize a gay marriage performed in another state.

Even the author of the Defense of Marriage Act, former Rep. Bob Barr, says this latest move is a bad precedent.

The Senate, which has already properly rejected a constitutional ban on gay marriage, should swiftly kill this idea and save the House from its own worst instincts.