FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2008
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW EXPERT TESTIFIES ABOUT PENNSYLVANIA MARRIAGE PROTECTION AMENDMENT
PITTSBURGH (April 11) – Constitutional law expert and Widener Law School professor Randy Lee, Esq. testified yesterday at a hearing of the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary and Appropriations Committees in Pittsburgh. Lee explained that SB 1250 – the Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment – would not interfere with employee benefits offered now to same sex partners of city employees in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh “because both ordinances simply grant a single particular treatment to a particular relationship not considered by the political subdivision to be a marriage.” He cited Pennsylvania case law and other historical references to support this argument.
SB 1250 proposes amending the Pennsylvania Constitution with this sentence: “No union other than a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as marriage or the functional equivalent of marriage by the Commonwealth.” If passed, Pennsylvania would join 27 other states that have marriage protection amendments in their state constitutions.
Lee clearly stated the sentiment of marriage amendment proponents, “If state constitutional marriage litigation were a dart game, one could easily imagine Pennsylvania would be the bull’s eye, such litigation having already wound its way to the court of last resort in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. Thus, with good reason, many in Pennsylvania believe it is only a matter of time before the courts of Pennsylvania are also so tested. Polls have consistently shown that nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania voters believe that the regulation of marriage exclusively should be the regulation of a relationship between one man and one woman. Given the dynamics of this debate and the constitutional traditions of this Commonwealth, the people should be allowed the opportunity to express that will.”
The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC), the public affairs agency of the Pennsylvania Catholic Bishops is urging passage of SB 1250 – the Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment.
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