Protection of Marriage: Kern County supervisors fail to approve ‘Marriage Protection Ordinance’

Posted by: Admin on Thursday, July 10, 2008 – 07:05 AM PST

California Catholic Daily

Bakersfield — Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a leading California organization defending marriage between a man and a woman, is sad and frustrated that the Kern County Board of Supervisors today “round-filed” a proposed ordinance to reserve marriage for a man and a woman.

“They lack conviction to match their words”

“Most supervisors talked a good talk on marriage,” said CCF President Randy Thomasson, author of the Marriage Protection Ordinance, “but they either don’t respect the written constitution which says judges can’t make the law or they lack conviction to match their words with deeds and truly protect marriage for a man and a woman. If these ‘pro-marriage’ supervisors had been at the Alamo, they probably would have turned tail and ran. It’s sad to see so-called ‘public servants’ so reluctant to sacrifice their personal comfort and set a good example for the children. They did the wrong thing by not publicly upholding marriage as a beautiful and exclusive relationship between a man and a woman.”

For the last month, Kern County citizens have been urging their five county supervisors to pass an ordinance requiring that marriage licenses be issued only to a man and a woman, a bride and a groom. At today’s supervisors’ meeting, virtually all of the public coming to the microphone urged the board to protect man-woman marriage. In 2000, Proposition 22 was approved by 80 percent of Kern county voters.

The Marriage Protection Ordinance was supported by an exhaustive legal analysis by the United States Justice Foundation, relying on the written California Constitution and statutes and the written state regulations. “The highest law in our state, the California Constitution, allows counties to pass ordinances, such as the ‘Marriage Protection Ordinance,’ which do not conflict with the California state statutes,” wrote USJF Executive Director Gary Kreep. “The California Family Code provides, in a number of sections, that marriage is only for a statutorily-qualified man and a statutorily-qualified woman. None of these sections have been amended by the California State Legislature and only two opined to be unenforceable by the California State Supreme Court. Only the Legislature, or the people through the initiative process, can make new laws in our state.”

“Since the California State Supreme Court has not declared those statutes unconstitutional, local government officials do not have the power to issue marriage licenses to anyone other than an unmarried man and an unmarried woman,” Kreep explained. “Therefore, no marriage licenses should be issued to same-sex couples until the language cited by the Supreme Court is stricken by the Legislature, the other statutes restricting marriage to one man and one woman have been amended, or until there is a judicial determination that the other statutes are unconstitutional.”