Same-Sex Marriage Decision Draws Conservative Fire

Social conservatives are pushing back against Monroe County Circuit Judge Luis Garcia allowing same-sex marriage in the Keys. Under Garcias ruling, same- sex couples can marry in Monroe County starting on Tuesday. After 62 percent of voters passed an amendment in 2008, the Florida Constitution allows only traditional marriage to be recognized in the Sunshine State.

John Stemberger, the president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council was active in establishing the amendment back in 2008 and he criticized Garcias decision on Thursday.

"Today's ruling by Judge Garcia, in the Florida Keys, is a stunning act of legal arrogance and raw judicial activism, Stemberger said. With one stoke of a pen, a mere trial judge has attempted to overthrow an act of direct democracy by 5 million Floridians who defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Judge Garcia has ignored the Constitution, ignored the will of the people, and has asserted his own personal views over the rule of law. This ruling is precisely what voters were trying to prevent when they overwhelmingly defined marriage in the Florida Constitution in 2008 by a 62 percent vote. Judge Garcia's reliance on the Windsor decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 is wrong-sided and completely misplaced. Windsor was a state's rights decision and affirmed that each state has the right to define marriage. Instead of relying on the Constitution, Garcia joined the judicial stampede of other lower federal judges who have tried to override marriage laws based on no precedent other than their own political agendas. The judge's opinion that the motivation for passing the marriage amendment was animus and hatred is simply outrageous and insults 5 million Floridians. We thank Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for filing an immediate appeal to the court to stay its order until the federal courts can rule on the constitutional issues and appeal this insubordinate decision."