It's always nice to see small-government, black helicopter-fearing Republicans jump on the bandwagon of megalomaniacal tyranny whenever it suits their fancy. In this case, anti-gay House Republican Ernest Istook (yes, Ernest) is pushing a proposal to take gay marriage out of the jurisdiction of EVERY COURT IN THE COUNTRY other than the Supreme Court. So you can't sue for marriage because the courts aren't allowed to hear the case.
Putting aside the blatantly unconstitutional nature of the proposal, you can't just pass laws saying certainly classes of people can't petition the courts for redress, it's really amazing how much these far-right wackos fear the rule of law in this country. As Rick Dog-Sex Santorum said last night on "The News Hour," someday the US Supreme Court will rule in favor of gay marriage. Yes, God forbid the Supreme Court were permitted to rule in a way that Senator Santorum didn't like.
Tulsa World (July 15 - it's not free online, sorry - like anyone would pay, anyway...):
As the Senate's anti-gay marriage proposal was going down in flames Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook was pushing an alternative measure that would not require an amendment to the Constitution....
Istook said his proposal would be broader than the Defense of Marriage Act, which Congress passed and President Clinton signed into law in 1996. That law, he said, applied the definition of marriage only for the purposes of federal law.
Istook's proposed measure would pre-empt all state laws and state court rulings, including the one in Massachusetts that opened the door to same-sex marriages in that state.
Istook said his measure would limit jurisdiction on challenges to his measure to the U.S. Supreme Court -- an "additional protection . . . to assure that litigants cannot rush to our most liberal courts to get a judge to invalidate this nationwide prohibition on same-sex marriages."
