(February 24, 2011). In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed legislation called the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing as marriage anything besides the union of one man to one woman.
Acting unilaterally, without the support of Congress, President Obama’s administration recently announced that they will simply cease to enforce the key provisions of the law. This move by a president to take the decision on what laws to enforce into his own hands, based merely on his personal interpretation, is unprecedented.
The United States Bishop conference was sharply critical of this move, as they seek both to defend marriage and true justice in a democratic society. This justice, of course, includes an executive enforcing all duly passed laws of the citizenry and their duly elected representatives.
Read the Bishops’ press release here