'Same-sex divorce' revoked
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 9/3/2010 4:05:00 AMA Texas court has reversed a judge's decision to grant a divorce in a case that involves two men.
District Judge Tena Callahan of Dallas granted the divorce to the couple, but the Fifth Court of Appeals in Texas has reversed that and returned the case to the lower court with an order to dismiss it.
Kelly Shackelford of Liberty Institute, the firm that helped the state attorney general's office argue the case, points to Proposition 2, the constitutional amendment passed by 76 percent of Texas voters in 2005 that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
"We can't have one judge deciding she doesn't like what millions of people vote and overturning that," Shackelford contends. "So it's important to restore the rule of law, but it's also important because it lays down the very precedents and the very arguments that are eventually going to be at play at the U.S. Supreme Court to defend marriage as between a man and a woman."
He reports that attorneys arguing in favor of the "same-sex divorce" basically presented the same points that were recently used to overturn California's Proposition 8.
"I think it's of crucial importance -- the right to self governance, the fact that the people in this country decide which laws will pass -- and we don't have judges making those decisions for us," the Liberty Institute attorney adds.
He thinks every state has the right to define marriage as between a man and a woman and that no judge should be allowed to overturn the will of the people.
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 9/3/2010 4:05:00 AMA Texas court has reversed a judge's decision to grant a divorce in a case that involves two men.
District Judge Tena Callahan of Dallas granted the divorce to the couple, but the Fifth Court of Appeals in Texas has reversed that and returned the case to the lower court with an order to dismiss it.
Kelly Shackelford of Liberty Institute, the firm that helped the state attorney general's office argue the case, points to Proposition 2, the constitutional amendment passed by 76 percent of Texas voters in 2005 that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
"We can't have one judge deciding she doesn't like what millions of people vote and overturning that," Shackelford contends. "So it's important to restore the rule of law, but it's also important because it lays down the very precedents and the very arguments that are eventually going to be at play at the U.S. Supreme Court to defend marriage as between a man and a woman."
He reports that attorneys arguing in favor of the "same-sex divorce" basically presented the same points that were recently used to overturn California's Proposition 8.
"I think it's of crucial importance -- the right to self governance, the fact that the people in this country decide which laws will pass -- and we don't have judges making those decisions for us," the Liberty Institute attorney adds.
He thinks every state has the right to define marriage as between a man and a woman and that no judge should be allowed to overturn the will of the people.