Marriage unanimously affirmed in Louisiana
Louisiana Supreme Court grants request of ADF attorneys, dumps district court decision on marriage amendmentBATON ROUGE, La.—The Louisiana Supreme Court today unanimously overturned the decision of a state district court judge who threw out Louisiana’s Defense of Marriage Amendment Oct. 5. In the high court’s opinion and one concurrence written by the chief justice, the justices rejected the lower court’s reasoning that the amendment had two purposes and was therefore unconstitutional.
“The amendment has one purpose: to protect marriage from attack,” said Mike Johnson, a Shreveport-based Alliance Defense Fund attorney who defended the amendment on behalf of its authors in the Louisiana Legislature as well as the Louisiana Family Forum and the American Family Association of New Orleans. The amendment guarantees that marriage in the state “shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.”
“This decision is a victory for the people of Louisiana and for justice and democracy. The court today upheld the will of the 78 percent of Louisiana voters who said ‘yes’ to the single issue of defending marriage from all contemporary threats,” Johnson said. “It makes no difference to those voters whether the threat is an attempt to redefine marriage or an attempt to rename it. Either would do great harm to the institution of marriage.”
To achieve its goal of protecting marriage, Louisiana’s amendment also prohibits the recognition of same-sex “marriages” from other jurisdictions and any other legal arrangements that are “identical” or “substantially similar” to marriage.
“This ruling sets a great precedent for the rest of the country. The approach of the amendments in eight of the 11 states in which voters approved amendments Nov. 2 is similar or identical to the approach of Louisiana’s amendment,” Johnson explained.
On Oct. 5, State District Court Judge William Morvant ruled that the amendment was flawed because he believed it addressed two subjects: marriage and civil unions. The Louisiana Supreme Court disagreed, stating in today’s opinion, “Each provision of the amendment is germane to the single object of defense of marriage and constitutes an element of the plan advanced to achieve this object.”
“We were confident we would win on appeal and always believed that the small number of people who disagreed with the majority vote would not prevail,” Johnson said. “We believe lawsuits filed against marriage amendments in other states using the single-subject argument are also on shaky ground.”
On Sept. 18, Louisiana became the sixth state to add a marriage amendment to its state constitution. So far, 17 states have amended their constitutions to recognize marriage as solely between a man and a woman. For more information on the battle to protect marriage, visit www.domawatch.org.
ADF is America’s largest legal alliance defending religious liberty through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
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