SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the
" Defense of Marriage Act" .
SECTION 2. POWERS RESERVED TO
THE STATES.
(a) IN GENERAL.-CHAPTER 115
OF TITLE 28, UNITED STATES CODE, IS AMENDED BY ADDING AFTER SECTION
1738B THE FOLLOWING:
"1738C. Certain acts,
records, and proceedings and the effect thereof
"No State, territory, or
possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to
give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any
other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship
between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under
the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a
right or claim arising from such relationship.".
SECTION 3. DEFINITION OF
MARRIAGE.
(a) IN GENERAL.-CHAPTER 1 OF
TITLE 1, UNITED STATES CODE, IS AMENDED BY ADDING AT THE END THE
FOLLOWING:
"7. Definition of 'marriage'
and 'spouse'
"In determining the meaning
of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or
interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of
the United States, the word 'marriage' means only a legal union
between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word
'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband
or a wife.".
