[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17207]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      COURT-STRIPPING LEGISLATION

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, today, the House will attempt to do 
something it has never done before, strip our courts of hearing cases 
on the Defense of Marriage Act.
  Eight years ago, I opposed DOMA because I felt it was a blatant act 
of discrimination against gays and lesbians. To this day, I believe 
Republicans forced the issue in 1996 because it was a Presidential year 
and they wanted to divide the country in a desperate search for votes.
  It is 8 years later, and Republicans are at it again. Last week, they 
were embarrassed in the other body when they could not even muster a 
majority on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Since that 
did not work, why not strip the courts of authority to hear cases 
regarding DOMA?
  The court-stripping bill would, for the first time in our Nation's 
history, take from a group of Americans the right to appeal to our 
courts. It is also extremely dangerous in that it would lead to the 
possibility of Congress stripping other issues from judicial review in 
the future.
  It is bad policy; but in an election year, Republicans simply do not 
care.

                          ____________________