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Nadler Praises Senate Vote on Federal Marriage Amendment

Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, today praised the Senate for failing to approve a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Nadler's statement follows:


"The Senate's overwhelming and bipartisan vote today was a major victory for our Bill of Rights. George W. Bush must not be allowed to use the Constitution as a political tool to write discrimination into our nation's most sacred government document.

"I have no doubt that when Tom DeLay forces a vote on this amendment in the House of Representatives, my colleagues will similarly reject this extremist political stunt.

"The proposed amendment would, for the first time in our nation's history, change the Constitution to deny, rather than to expand, the civil rights of a large number of Americans. I am very pleased that the Senate rejected the President's election year call to undermine this country's historic commitment to the guarantee of equal protection under the law for all Americans.

"The truth is that the President's egregious attempt to enshrine discrimination in our Constitution is no more than a search for a wedge issue in the 2004 campaign to distract the American public from the fact that the President and the Republican Congress have failed to address the historic loss of 3 million jobs, the largest deficit in American history, and inequities in public education and health care."

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