Oklahoma City, Oklahoma — The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a resolution this week to urge the United States Supreme Court and the Obama administration to uphold and protect Biblical marriage, and to allow states the right to do the same.
“Be it resolved by the House of Representatives … that the Oklahoma Legislature reaffirms its commitment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman and urges the United States Supreme Court to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act and the right of states to regulate marriage,” the motion declares.
The resolution passed 84-0 on Tuesday, with the exception of 17 Democratic representatives who decided to walk out rather than vote. One of the walkouts included openly homosexual representative Kay Floyd of Oklahoma City.
The eight-paragraph document declares that “marriage is the building block upon which our society is based.” It also asserts that “the power to regulate marriage is a power reserved to the states that lies within the domain of state legislatures and not with the judicial branch of government.”
Additionally, legislators noted that in 2004, voters approved a state constitutional amendment to enshrine marriage as being solely between a man and a woman. Thirty states to date have passed constitutional amendments on the issue, and out of the nine states that permit homosexual “marriage,” only two did so with the approval of the people.
The Oklahoma House decided to pass the resolution as a declaration to the Supreme Court that the state of Oklahoma desires for the nine justices on the bench to make the right decision for the country.
As previously reported, the Supreme Court heard oral argument last month regarding both the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8. While it was too soon for analysts to make a judgment call on which way the court will lean, it was evident that justices were divided over the matter and had a number of questions about the ramifications of endorsing homosexual “marriage.”
“If you say that marriage is a fundamental right, what state restrictions could ever exist?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor inquired of attorney Ted Olson, who argued in favor of overturning Proposition 8. “Meaning, what state restrictions with respect to the number of people, with respect to the incest laws, the mother and child, assuming that they are the age — I can accept that the state has probably an overbearing interest on protecting a child until they’re of age to marry, but what’s left?”
“The question is whether or not the federal government … has the authority to regulate marriage,” asserted Justice Anthony Kennedy during the oral argument surrounding DOMA.
“[DOMA] has 1,100 laws, which in our society means that the federal government is intertwined with the citizens’ day-to-day life, you are at real risk of running in conflict with what has always been thought to be the essence of the state police power, which is to regulate marriage, divorce, custody,” he continued.
With the passage of Tuesday’s resolution by the Oklahoma House, legislators are also asking that the declaration “be distributed to the President and Vice President of the United States and to the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation.”
The resolution is now being considered in the state Senate.
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