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Sarasota News Leader April 12, 2013 OPINION Page 60 THE SUPREME COURT, SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND YOU — OR MAYBE A NEIGHBOR, RELATIVE OR FRIEND By Rodger Skidmore Contributing Writer COMMENTARY Editor's note: Because of the length of this article, we are providing the first segment "in print" and inviting you to read the entire commentary in a PDF format, as indicated. Whether you are for or against same-sex marriage, it is a really hot button for both this season and the next. It is a button that was pushed on March 26 and 27, but we will not hear the resulting screams of joy or despair until June. of evangelical Christian organizations along with many words of support from the Roman Catholic Church. All of this religious organization money was donated to ensure the outcome of a religious law in our country where church and state are supposed to be separate. In August 2010, a U.S. District Court volleyed back a ruling that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional, specifically relative to due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The court's reasoning went along the lines that the Constitution says all people in the U.S. should be treated equally under the law; Same-sex marriage and a number of connectgays and lesbians are people; therefore, they ed issues have now been argued before the should be treated equally — sort of like, what U.S. Supreme Court. The first was California's part of YES don't you understand? Proposition 8, which is referenced as "Prop. 8." That state's supreme court had previously Apparently that ruling did not satisfy those ruled that same-sex marriages were, under the against same-sex marriage, and the controverstate's constitution, legal. Prop. 8, passed by sy was bumped up to the U.S. Supreme Court California voters in 2008, added a clause to the for a final judicial decision. Constitution stating, "Only marriage between The other issue up for review is the Defense a man and a woman is valid or recognized in of Marriage Act (DOMA): a federal law definCalifornia." ing marriage as the legal union of one man Note: More than $20 million was contribut- and one woman for federal and interstate ed by Mormons — members of The Church purposes. Now we know why Congress has of Latter-Day Saints — in support of Prop. 8, not been passing meaningful legislation since with additional funding by the Union of Or- 1996 (when DOMA was passed): It must be thodox Jewish Congregations of America, busy drafting laws defining the other 170,000the Eastern Orthodox Church and a myriad plus words in the Oxford English dictionary.