For Immediate Release
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today issued a ruling overturning California’s Proposition 8, which defines marriage in California as the union of a man and a woman. Family Council President Jerry Cox says that the ruling came as no surprise.
“This is a liberal judiciary that is renown for legislating from the bench,” Cox said. “We did not expect them to rule in favor of the people of California or traditional marriage. I fully expect the United States Supreme Court to rule differently when the issue comes to their attention.”
Cox, who spearheaded the Arkansas Marriage Amendment Committee’s effort in 2004 to define marriage in Arkansas as the union of one man and one woman, said he believes individual states have the authority to define and regulate marriage. “The state has laws on the books that regulate the number of spouses you can have; at what age you can marry; and how you go about dissolving a marriage. If the courts decide that states do not retain the right to govern what is or is not a marriage, marriage as a legal institution and a social institution could cease to exist. After all, if marriage doesn’t have any set definitions or boundaries, how can it continue to function and exist?”
In 2004, the Arkansas Marriage Amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman was approved by seventy-five percent of Arkansas voters. Cox said his group will continue to monitor the situation and any ramifications future court rulings have for Arkansas. “If the U.S. Supreme Court were to strike down Prop Eight as unconstitutional, that could affect Arkansas’ own marriage amendment, along with approximately forty other states’. That’s something we really need to watch for.”
View the original press release in PDF by clicking here.
