State Ends Appeal in Same-Sex Marriage Case

NEWS BRIEF

Three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry, the State of Florida filed a motion for dismissal in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a federal case challenging the constitutionality of Florida's definition of marriage as solely between a man and a woman. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in November filed an appeal after U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that Florida's voter-approved marriage amendment was unconstitutional. The appeal was put on hold because of the then-pending U.S. Supreme Court case involving the legal definition of marriage in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The U.S. Supreme Court's June 26 decision in the case requires all states to license and recognize same-sex "marriage", making pursuit of the Florida case moot.

Comparing the ruling on marriage to other wrong decisions by the Supreme Court, such as Roe v. Wade and Dred Scott, Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, FCCB president, stated, "This decision redefining marriage will also bring bad consequences. Losing the understanding of marriage in our culture as a conjugal union of a man and a woman in a permanent and exclusive commitment conducive to welcoming and raising the children born from such a union weakens the family as the basic cell of society; and it imperils the human flourishing of future generations."