[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 6, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S2212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 11--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS WITH 
   RESPECT TO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S DISCONTINUING TO DEFEND THE 
                        DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT

  Mr. INHOFE submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                            S. Con. Res. 11

       Whereas on February 23, 2011, President Barack Obama 
     ordered the Department of Justice to drop its defense of a 
     central part of the 1996 law that bars the Federal Government 
     from recognizing same-sex unions, the Defense of Marriage Act 
     (adding section 7 of title 1, United States Code), and both 
     President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder concluded 
     the law is unconstitutional;
       Whereas President Obama himself has said that marriage is 
     something sanctified between a man and a woman;
       Whereas, passed by significant majorities in both chambers 
     of Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, 
     the Defense of Marriage Act has never been overturned in any 
     Federal lawsuit challenging that Act's constitutionality by a 
     Federal court, yet the Department of Justice has decided not 
     to defend that Act in Federal court;
       Whereas, on the contrary, the Department of Justice is 
     vigorously defending in numerous Federal courts across the 
     country President Obama's signature health care reform law, 
     the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 
     111-148), and the related Health Care and Education 
     Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-152), after the 
     bills involved barely passed both chambers of Congress on 
     party line votes, and whose critical individual mandate 
     provision has been declared unconstitutional by separate 
     Federal district courts in the cases of Florida v. United 
     States Department of Health and Human Services, Case No.: 
     3:10-cv-91-RV/EMT (N.D. Fla., Jan. 31, 2011), and Virginia ex 
     rel. Cuccinelli v. Sebelius, 728 F. Supp. 2d 768 (E.D. Va. 
     2010); and
       Whereas the vast majority of Americans believe that 
     marriage should continue to be what it always has been--the 
     legal and spiritual union between one man and one woman: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That Congress--
       (1) condemns the Obama administration's direction that the 
     Department of Justice should discontinue defending the 
     Defense of Marriage Act; and
       (2) demands that the Department of Justice continue to 
     defend the Defense of Marriage Act in all instances.

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