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Blumenauer Responds to Republican Attack on Civil Liberties

July 22, 2004
Washington, DC– Today Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) voted against the Republican Leadership’s assault on civil liberties. H.R. 3313 strips jurisdiction from all federal courts, including the Supreme Court, of any cases involving certain provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), passed the House Floor earlier today.

“It is unfortunate that the President and the Republican Leadership have chosen to politicize the issue of gay marriage,” said Blumenauer. “It is an outrageous assault on our system of checks and balances to strip the federal courts of their ability to review the law.”

H.R. 3313 denies all federal courts - including the U.S. Supreme Court - the jurisdiction to review the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a law that allows states and the federal government to ignore same sex marriages. The so-called Marriage Protection Act sets a dangerous precedent, threatening the constitutional safeguards between the judicial branch and the two other branches of the federal government, depriving the federal courts of their traditional role as interpreters of the United States Constitution.

“This dangerous, tragic and ill conceived precedent will be dusted off every time people want to extend their political influence at the expense of civil liberties that may be controversial, but demand the attention from our federal courts.”