From Gary Bauer’s news update today. There is still hope for America.
I am pleased also to report a surprising victory from our courts. Today, the Rhode Island State Supreme Court issued a crucial decision on the definition of marriage. The court had been asked to grant a divorce to a homosexual couple “married†in neighboring Massachusetts. But by granting the divorce, the court would have been recognizing the “marriage†as valid under Rhode Island law. Many pro-family leaders were not optimistic about the outcome of this case, because marriage is not expressly defined in Rhode Island law as the union of one man and one woman. Homosexual “marriage†advocates had hoped that they could exploit this perceived ambiguity in the law.
But the Rhode Island justices ruled 3-to-2 that Rhode Island would not recognize same-sex “marriages,†because in the court’s opinion, “The role of the judicial branch is not to make policy, but simply to determine the legislative intent.†And on that issue the majority found, “…there is absolutely no reason to believe that … legislators understood the word marriage to refer to any state other than ‘the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex.’â€
Can you believe that? A New England court strictly limiting itself to the original intent of the law. I guess this really is the season of miracles!