[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10413]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 JUSTICE AND EQUITY RESTORED IN AMERICA

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Almost 17 years to the day--that's a long time--the 
House of Representatives passed the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. 
At that time, I went to the floor and voted with a small minority 
against this legislation. I said it was unnecessary, discriminatory, 
and unconstitutional.
  It took 17 years to work through the system and to finally get the 
Supreme Court to act and to decide that, indeed, the Defense of 
Marriage Act, so-called, is unconstitutional and is a deprivation of 
the equal liberty of persons it has protected in the Fifth Amendment:
  ``The Federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes 
the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by 
its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,'' as 
written by Justice Kennedy, ``by seeking to displace this protection 
and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than 
others.''
  Today, the Supreme Court restored justice and equity in America.

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