[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 174 (Tuesday, November 25, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S16031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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      SENATE RESOLUTION 275--TO AFFIRM THE DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT

  Mr. NICKLES (for himself, Mr. Brownback, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Bunning, 
Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Santorum, and Mr. Allard) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 275

       Whereas, marriage is a fundamental social institution that 
     has been tested and reaffirmed over thousands of years;
       Whereas, historically marriage has been reflected in our 
     law and the law of all jurisdictions in the United States as 
     the union of a man and a woman, and the everyday meaning of 
     marriage and the legal meaning of marriage has always been 
     defined as the legal union of a man and a woman as husband 
     and wife;
       Whereas, families consisting of the legal union of one man 
     and one woman for the purpose of bearing and raising children 
     remains the basic unit of our civil society;
       Whereas, in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the 
     Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled 4 to 3 that the 
     Constitution of the State of Massachusetts prohibits the 
     denial of the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex 
     couples;
       Whereas, the power to regulate marriage lies with the 
     legislature and not with the judiciary and the Constitution 
     of the State Massachusetts specifically states that the 
     judiciary ``shall never exercise the legislative and 
     executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a 
     government of laws and not of men''; and
       Whereas, in 1996, Congress overwhelmingly passed, and 
     President Bill Clinton signed, the Defense of Marriage Act 
     under which Congress exercised its rights under the effects 
     clause of section 1 of Article IV of the United States 
     Constitution: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the Sense of the Senate--
       (1) Congress should take whatever steps necessary to affirm 
     the fact that marriage in the United States shall consist 
     only of the union of one man and one woman;
       (2)(A) same-sex marriage is not a right, fundamental or 
     otherwise, recognized in this country; and
       (B) neither the United States Constitution nor any Federal 
     law shall be construed to require that marital status or 
     legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples 
     or groups; and
       (3) the Defense of Marriage Act is a proper and 
     constitutional exercise of Congress's powers under the 
     effects clause of section 1 of Article IV and that no State, 
     territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian 
     tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, 
     record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, 
     possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between 
     persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under 
     the laws of such State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a 
     right or claim arising from such relationship.

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