powers were reserved for the Federal Government and which were
the sole province of the states; and
WHEREAS, Marriage law has historically been the province of
state law in the United States, and the Supreme Court of the
United States has historically recognized this, stating as early
as 1890 that "[t]he whole subject of the domestic relations of
husband and wife, parent and child, belongs to the laws of the
States and not to the laws of the United States"; and
WHEREAS, The people of many of the sovereign states,
including Pennsylvania, have expressed their will through the
representative political process: that marriage be limited to
one man and one woman; and
WHEREAS, In 1996, the General Assembly passed the Defense of
Marriage Act, which declared the strong and longstanding public
policy of the Commonwealth that marriage be between one man and
one woman and that marriage between persons of the same sex
which was entered into in another state or foreign jurisdiction
be void in this Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, A Federal judge in 2014 overturned the Pennsylvania
law based on what he called the "bedrock constitutional
guarantees of due process and equal protection," which was on
its face a new application of the Constitution to justify the
creation of a new constitutional right; and
WHEREAS, In spite of the clear public response to the issue
as expressed by the people's elected representatives, same-sex
marriage is established in 25 states, including Pennsylvania, as
a result of judicial decisions rather than legislative
decisions; and
WHEREAS, In 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States
decided a challenge to the Federal Defense of Marriage Act that
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