PRESS RELEASE
DATE:
July 28, 2014 TO: Media outlets
FROM: Dr. Mark Creech, Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc.
Re: Court's Ruling Declares Virginia's Marriage Amendment
Unconstitutional
The decision today by the three-judge-panel of the 4th Circuit Court
of Appeals declaring Virginia's state constitutional marriage
amendment as unconstitutional is disheartening, but not entirely
unexpected. We've seen this trend by federal courts in more than 20
legal decisions on marriage around the country.
Nevertheless, regardless of how many times such rulings come down from
the courts, they are fundamentally flawed and the worst form of
judicial activism. Judge Henry F. Floyd wrote in the 4th Circuit's
opinion today that Virginia's marriage amendment impermissibly
infringes on a same-sex couple's fundamental right to marry.
Granted, the 14th Amendment protects the fundamental right to marry.
Still, the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions that establish a fundamental
right to marriage have always understood the institution as only the
union of one man and one woman. The debate about marriage has never
really been about who can marry, but what actually defines marriage.
What justices like these of the 4th Circuit Court have done in ruling
against state constitutional marriage amendments is to supply their
own, new answer to the central legal question of how marriage is to be
defined. Of course, the only way they can do this is to impose a view
of marriage, which sees it as a genderless institution and then
pronounces from on high that states must define marriage as the court
declares it.
The point here is the courts, more specifically; in this case the 4th
Circuit Court's three-judge panel has set themselves above the people,
above the Constitution, and above Almighty God - the final authority
who says marriage is and always legitimately shall be between one man
and one woman.
Because North Carolina is a part of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals,
the ruling damages North Carolina's own constitutional amendment to
protect marriage. There are at least three different lawsuits against
North Carolina's state marriage amendment waiting in the wings. After
the 4th Circuit's decision today, North Carolina Attorney General, Roy
Cooper announced he would not oppose these challenges to overturn
North Carolina's marriage laws. Cooper said, "After reviewing the
Fourth Circuit decision, and consulting with attorneys here, I've
concluded that the state of North Carolina will acknowledge the Fourth
Circuit opinion that marriage is a fundamental right, and that our
office believes that the judges in North Carolina are bound by the
Fourth Circuit decision."
Cooper's decision is premature, surrenders to judicial activism, and
abandons the will of the people of North Carolina. Even though Cooper
has spoken out against our state's marriage amendment, he promised
that he would defend it. He now says that he will not. In fact, he
says North Carolina will recognize the Fourth Circuit Court's decision
and that the state's judges are bound by it. Like the 4th Circuit's
decision, Cooper's own decision is not entirely unexpected, although
no less reprehensible.
In Virginia, Fifty-seven percent of its citizens said via the ballot
box they believed marriage should be legally defined exclusively as
one man and one woman. In North Carolina the margin was even higher,
sixty-one percent. But now two federal justices have overturned the
will of the people and ruled marriage must be defined differently in
all states under the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
All Americans should tremble. If the courts can redefine the bed-rock
institution of marriage, they can redefine anything. A government of
the people, by the people, and for the people is disappearing, while a
government of the courts, by the courts, and for the courts, is
raising its tyrannical head to write it's will for all of us.
Rev. Mark Creech is executive director of the Raleigh-based Christian
Action League of North Carolina, Inc. He can be reached at
919.787.0606 or
office@christianactionleague.org 
National Organization for Marriage
