The Federal Marriage Amendment

Case Analysis: The Federal Marriage Amendment (MPA)

Under the leadership of President George W. Bush and key members of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, the so-called Marriage Protection Act of Federal Marriage Amendment has been introduced in both houses of Congress ("Human Rights Campaign," 1). The purpose of this particular legislation, identified as S.J. Res. 1 and H.J. Res. 9, is to ensure that marriage rights are extended only to heterosexual couples. To a large degree, the legislation represents what President Bush (1) has characterized as an unacceptable form of judicial activism which seeks to redefine marriage.

It is the purpose of this research report to trace the progress of this particular legislation and to identify the legislative processes by means of which law is developed. It is equally important in this re port to present a chronological explanation of the evolution of this particular legislation - a process which involves subcommittees, committees, floor activity, conferences, and other hearings all geared to ensure that a free debate on the legislation occurs. To that end, the literature will be reviewed and a chronology of key dates in the battle over the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) will be attached to this report as Appendix A.

The origins of the MPA can be traced to the Clinton administration in which former president, Bill Clinton, signed Congressional legisl

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Rep King, Steve [IA-5] - 9/13/2005 Rep Kuhl, John R. "Randy", Jr. [NY-29] - 4/6/2005 Rep Lewis, Ron [KY-2] - 5/19/2005 Rep McCotter, Thaddeus G. [MI-11] - 12/16/2005 Rep Norwood, Charlie [GA-9] - 4/6/2005 Rep Radanovich, George [CA-19] - 5/19/2005 Rep Rogers, Mike D. [AL-3] - 3/17/2005 Rep Stearns, Cliff [FL-6] - 3/17/2005 Rep Taylor, Gene [MS-4] - 3/17/2005 Rep Wamp, Zach [TN-3] - 4/6/2005 (Source: Library of Congress 2, 1). The Human Rights Campaign (2, 1) pointed out that early in his second term, President Bush was concerned that were insufficient votes for the amendment to pass the Senate. He did not indicate that the White House would aggressively push for an amendment, despite their repeated call for a constitutional amendment throughout 2004. Nevertheless, despite the failure of the amendment in both the House of Representatives and the Senate by, respectively, votes of 227-186 and 48-50, in 2004, proponents of the legislation moved to reintroduce the amendment in early 2005 (Human Rights Campaign, 2, 1). In April 2005, the MPA was referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights where a hearin

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