Why pass State Constitutional Amendments rather than state statutory bans?
Congress enacted the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996, a law that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages and allows states to enact similar legislation. Since 1996, forty-two states, following the model of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, enacted state DOMA type laws [not state constitutional amendments] prohibiting same-sex marriages and the recognition of same-sex marriages formed in another jurisdiction.[xix] Because the U.S. Senate was unable to pass the Federal Marriage Amendment [FMA] to the U.S. Constitution in July 2004, the best remedy against judiciary rulings and out of control legislators who support gay marriage is to have another attempt at passing a federal constitutional amendment that says marriage in the U.S. shall only be between one man and one woman. Until that happens, however, having state constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage are seen as the most sure-fire way to protect traditional marriage. State constitutional amendment
