Today we sent out a media advisory stating that I would hold a news conference next Tuesday to announce the introduction of a bill to amend the state constitution to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. It is hard for many of us to believe that steps like this are necessary, but unfortunately, they are. Although the state already has a law that defines marriage, since it is not part of the constitution, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court could rule that the current law is not constitutional. A court decision has set new law in three other states and a court action can be brought in Pennsylvania at anytime. In fact, the ACLU practically advertised for such a case in a Philadelphia Inquirer story just this week. The process to change the constitution is that a bill must pass through the legislature in two consecutive sessions. Then it appears on the ballot for the voters to decide. If it passes, it becomes an amendment to the constitution. The Governor does not have the opportunity to veto a constitutional amendment bill. This is a very important issue for the welfare of our society. It is not the narrowly defined issue that some would have people believe. Factual information, not rhetoric will win any argument on this topic.

- John

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.