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Hatch Statement on Appeals Court Ruling that DOMA is Unconstitutional

Statement

Date: May 31, 2012
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Issues: Marriage Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a current member and former Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today issued the following statement after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional:

"This is precisely the kind of legal decision that happens when judges substitute their personal views for the law. If the court had applied the correct legal standard to this case, they would have upheld the Defense of Marriage Act. But because the judges had predetermined that it had to be unconstitutional, they created a new legal standard on the fly that allowed them to achieve their desired result. To be clear, this decision might have issued from a court, but that does not change the fact that it is lawless decision-making and an abuse of judicial power."


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