In the wake of Vice President Biden "s "evolution" on the issue of same-sex marriage, U.S. Senate candidate Wendy Long called on President Obama to reverse his flip-flop and enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), leaving the issue of marriage policy where it belongs, with the people of all 50 states. Long issued the following statement:
"As a practicing Catholic, I believe what President Obama says he believes, that marriage is between a man and woman. I also believe that, from a constitutional perspective, marriage is and always has been the province of state law. Yesterday's comments by Vice President Biden raise the specter that the Obama administration is preparing yet another assault on our Constitution and another radical intrusion by the federal government into our everyday lives.
"Unfortunately, the Obama administration has already reversed its support for DOMA first set in place by President Clinton. DOMA upholds the constitutional premise that marriage is a state issue, allowing individual states to adopt laws that reflect what the people in that state want to do. That is what our Founders intended and what a federal system of government is all about.
"I urge President Obama to honor our Constitution and refrain from any federal action preempting state discretion as it pertains to laws guiding same-sex marriage. I also call on him to definitively make his position clear for a second term, so that voters can be certain that he won't "evolve' like my opponent Senator Gillibrand when the timing is convenient for his political calendar. I think any New Yorkers, and all Americans, are concerned that if President Obama is re-elected, he will have even less regard for the views of the American people than he has had to date. And we cannot afford a U.S. Senate with a majority like Kirsten Gillibrand who are eager to rubber-stamp his arrogant trampling of the constitutional power reserved to the states and the people. "