Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Attorney General ignores Supreme Court instruction on Utah marriage law, Archbishop Cordileone charges

The Attorney General of the United States acting against both law and Supreme Court precedent by authorizing federal recognition of same-sex marriages in Utah, charges the chairman of the US bishops’ committee on marriage.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco observed that Utah’s law defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but Attorney General Eric Holder “is ignoring Utah law an imposing a contrary federal definition of marriage in that state.” 

The Utah law is under legal challenge, but the existing state law remains in force, the archbishop noted. 

Last year, in the Windsor case, the US Supreme Court overruled a federal definition of marriage. 

 Nevertheless in that decision, Archbishop Cordileone pointed out, the court “made clear that the federal government is to respect a state's definition of marriage.”