News

LITTLE ROCK, AR, May 5, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a contrast with numerous other Democratic elected officials, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said on Saturday that while he supports redefining marriage, he would “zealously defend” the 2004 state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

McDaniel is one of several state Attorneys General who have publicly said they will not let their personal support for same-sex “marriage” interfere with their oaths of office. McDaniel went so far as to criticize U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for telling state AGs they could ignore state law on the issue, saying that “I do not take orders from Eric Holder and I'm determined to live up to my obligation, and that includes with regard to our state's definition of marriage.”

McDaniel is the only official elected statewide who publicly supports same-sex “marriage,” including Democratic Senator Mark Pryor. Pryor is the state's only Democratic member of the state's Congressional delegation.

Image

In 2006, McDaniel supported civil unions, not a redefinition of marriage, when he unsuccessfully ran for governor. His views have apparently changed in recent years.

“Attorney General McDaniel has come down on the wrong side of the policy debate over the definition of marriage, and he may pay a price for that if he runs for re-election or for higher office,” Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council, told LifeSiteNews. “However, I do give him credit for at least recognizing what several of his colleagues in other states, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, have not – namely, that there is a difference between disagreeing with the policy choice made by the legislature or the people.”

A number of state Attorneys General have followed the advice of Holder, including newly-elected Attorney General Mark Herring of Virginia. Herring has faced calls for impeachment since he decided to not defend the law. Pennsylvania and New Mexico have seen their Attorneys General choose to ignore their oaths of office.

President Obama was widely criticized for saying he opposed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which led to Holder choosing to not defend the law. That criticism came from within his own administration, as well as wider political and legal circles.

Click “like” if you want to defend true marriage.

Many supporters of marriage felt that Obama's declaration of opposition to DOMA led to his administration defending it in a fashion that led to it being overturned.

“There is no logical contradiction in defending as constitutional a law with which one disagrees as a matter of policy,” Sprigg told LifeSiteNews.

However, Sprigg said “those of us who believe that one-man-one-woman marriage is the correct policy would be more confident having our legal position represented by someone who is firmly committed to that view. Under these circumstances, I think it would be appropriate for him to delegate the actual task of defending the state –both in briefs and in the courtroom –to other attorneys, whether on staff or outside counsel, who can and will offer a full-throated defense of the Arkansas constitution.”

Heritage Foundation Legal Fellow Andrew Kloster told LifeSiteNews, “Attorneys General and other lawyers representing federal or state governments are often tasked with enforcing laws they don’t support politically,”

For example, he said, U.S. attorneys “must uphold…the FACE Act—the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act—which is often used against anti-abortion protestors.” It is”important that they put their office and their ethical duties above their personal politics.”

He said that McDaniel's opposition to his state's amendment could be an asset for marriage supporters.