TAMPA, January 20, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Tampa federal Judge James Moody, Jr. dismissed a challenge to Florida’s marriage laws yesterday.
The ruling in Wilson v. Ake also upheld the constitutionality of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) and rejected the attempt to extend a Massachusetts same-sex marriage to Florida. This is the first case to uphold the Federal DOMA against a same-sex marriage challenge.
The Federal DOMA, passed by Congress in 1996, provides that one state does not have to recognize an out-of-state, same-sex marriage. In upholding the DOMA, the court wrote, “Florida is not required to recognize or apply Massachusetts’ same-sex marriage law because it clearly conflicts with Florida’s legitimate public policy of opposing same-sex marriage.”
“Adopting Plaintiffs’ rigid and literal interpretation of the Full Faith and Credit would create a license for a single State to create national policy.”
Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel – one of the groups which intervened in the case, stated, “The decision to uphold traditional marriage is a common sense ruling. There is no constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Although the court upheld the Defense of Marriage Act, we still need a federal constitutional amendment so that we don’t have to scour the wire services hour by hour to determine whether our marriage laws remain intact. Marriage is a fundamental basis of our society, and it must be preserved and stabilized once and for all through the passage of a constitutional amendment.”