Following today’s party-line vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Federal Marriage Amendment, People For the American Way Legal Director Elliot Mincberg issued the following statement:

“Today’s vote was a shameful act of election-year vandalism against our Constitution and the basic American principle of equal protection under the law. Discrimination is wrong, and the U.S. Constitution, our most sacred legal document, is especially the wrong place for it.

“It’s not surprising that some Republican leaders want to distract Americans from crises that really threaten our families and values – unfair tax policies and a runaway deficit, a culture of corruption and lack of accountability for lawbreaking at the highest levels of our government, the neglect of children and families displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and more. But writing discrimination into our sacred charter of freedom for short-term political gain shows a basic lack of decency.

“People For the American Way will mobilize fair-minded Americans to fight this amendment.”