DOMAwas passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton in and definesmarriage for federal and inter-state recognition purposes. Proposition 8 is a stateconstitutional amendment approved by the citizens of California in Bothlaws are challenged because they define marriage exclusively as the union ofone man and one woman.
Windsor says that "there is no fundamental rightto marry a person of the same sex. It added that "civil recognition ofsame-sex relationships is not deeply rooted in the Nation's history andtradition—quite the opposite is true. Nor can the treatment of such relationshipsas marriages be said to be implicit in the concept of ordered liberty, suchthat neither liberty nor justice would exist if they were sacrificed.
USCCB argued that previous SupremeCourt decisions "describing marriage as a fundamental right plainly contemplatethe union of one man and one woman. Government support formarriage, so understood, is "recognizing the unique capacity of opposite-sexcouples to procreate" and "the unique value to children of being raised bytheir mother and father together.
The USCCB brief states that "[T]hePeople of California could reasonably conclude that a home with a mother and afather is the optimal environment for raising children, an ideal thatProposition 8 encourages and promotes. Given both the unique capacity forreproduction and unique value of homes with a mother and father, it isreasonable for a State to treat the union of one man and one woman as having apublic value that is absent from other intimate interpersonal relationships.
The USCCB brief adds that "Whilethis Court has held that laws forbidding private, consensual, homosexual conduct between adults lack a rational basis,it does not follow that the government has a constitutional duty to encourageor endorse such conduct. Thus, governments may legitimately decide to furtherthe interests of opposite-sex unions only. Similarly, minimum standards ofrationality under the Constitution do not require adopting the lower court'sincoherent definition of 'marriage' as merely a 'committed lifelongrelationship,' which is wildly over-inclusive, empties the term of its meaning,and leads to absurd results.
