Senate blocks
same-sex marriage ban
From CNN.com on the
Web. June 7, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The Senate
rejected Wednesday a bid to amend the Constitution to essentially ban same-sex
marriage.
Republicans pushed the plan even though supporters conceded the measure did not
have enough votes to pass.
Proponents failed to get the 60 votes needed to end debate and move to a vote on
the actual amendment. The Senate vote was 49-48 to end debate.
Opponents called the measure an election-year ploy that wasted precious time on
the legislative calendar.
"This is not about the preservation of marriage. This is about the
preservation of a majority," Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, said as debate
started Wednesday. "I think, sadly, most people realize there's political
motivation here."
Republican senators said 45 states have passed laws or constitutional amendments
defining marriage as a pact between a man and a woman. "The voice of the
people has been heard loud and clear," Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colorado, said.
The real impetus behind the debate was to energize conservative voters this
fall, CNN's Dana Bash reported.
"Republican leaders here ... are very concerned about the fact that
conservatives are unhappy with their leadership on a number of issues. On
social issues, they feel like they went out and voted for Republicans in control
of Washington, and they have sort of turned their backs on them on key issues
that they care about like same-sex marriage [or] on the fiscal side, issues like
repealing the estate tax. That is why you're seeing the Senate take up
those issues this week," Bash said.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, denounced the proposed amendment
Tuesday as "an instrument of bigotry and prejudice," which he said was designed
by the GOP leadership "to try to bring Republican senators out of the ditch of
disapproval."
And Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said that "the reason
the Senate Republicans are pushing this marriage amendment is because they don't
want to address the real issues of this country."
"This is an effort by the president and the majority in the House and the Senate
to distort, to misdirect what the real issues are," he said.
The vote began around 10 a.m., after a final hour of debate. The Senate
began debate on the amendment Monday afternoon.
Even if the measure had been able to clear the procedural vote, a two-thirds
majority -- 67 votes -- would be required for final approval of a constitutional
amendment -- an even higher hurdle to overcome.
The last time the Senate voted on the amendment, in July 2004, only 48 senators
supported it and 50 were opposed.
Spurred on by religious conservatives in his political base, President Bush had
called on the Senate to approve the amendment, saying it was necessary to
protect the institution of marriage from state court decisions striking down
marriage laws that exclude gay and lesbian couples.
So far that has happened in just one state, Massachusetts, where same-sex
marriages became legal in 2003, although court cases are pending in other
states.
To become part of the Constitution an amendment needs approval from at least
two-thirds of the Senate (67 of the 100 members), at least two-thirds of the
House (290 of the 435 members) and three-fourths of the states (38 of the 50
states), or by a convention called by three-fourths of the states.
In the nearly 220 years since the Constitution was written, only 27 amendments
have made it through this arduous approval process, the most recent in 1992
governing the timing of changes in congressional compensation. No
amendment has been approved by a convention.
CNN's Dana Bash contributed to this report.
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