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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Republicans Poke Embers|of Same-Sex Marriage

(CN) - A Texas congressman claims that federal judges who have swatted down states' same-sex marriage bans need lessons on human anatomy.

Rep. Louis Gohmert, a Republican from Tyler, spoke at a panel hosted by the Heritage Foundation on Jan. 15. The "Conversation with Conservatives" panel included Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minnesota, and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.

"[The judges] need some basic plumbing lessons," Gohmert said. "For an omnipotent, omniscious [sic], ubiquitous federal judge who is wise beyond his education to say [and] to make such a declaration about the law, I think, requires revisiting by each state and compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court."

Gohmert was responding to a question about Oklahoma's same-sex marriage ban being overturned last week due to equal protection violations of the 14th Amendment.

U.S. District Judge Terence Kern in Tulsa rejected the state's moral, biological and child-bearing arguments for the ban. The judge concluded the "carrot" of marriage is still shown to most nonprocreative couples, but not to gay, nonprocreative couple. Bachmann singled out President Barack Obama as well as federal judges, comparing their opposition to same-sex marriage bans to the tenure of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, "who all of a sudden declared his edicts were not appealable to a court."

"The legacy of Barack Obama will be of the establishment of lawlessness in the United States," Bachmann said.

The issue of same-sex marriages, of course, has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Follow @davejourno
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