NFA Response to Judge Bataillon's Ruling: No Court Can Redefine Marriage

On March 2, 2015 one man overturned an amendment to the Nebraska Constitution approved by over 70% of voters. In the last six months, federal judges have overturned 18 state constitutionally enacted definitions of marriage, of which Nebraska is now one.

After reviewing the decision of Judge Joseph Bataillon, it is clear Judge Bataillon has many misunderstandings about marriage and the people who defend it.

Despite Judge Bataillon’s insistence that Nebraska’s marriage amendment relies on “archaic and over-broad stereotypes about gender roles” the union of one man and one woman brings equality to our society by saying that men AND women are both VITAL to a marital relationship.

Judge Bataillon argues that these “archaic” stereotypes presume, “the father has the ‘primary responsibility to provide a home and its essentials,’ while the mother is the ‘center of home and family life.” To the contrary, Nebraska’s constitutional amendment is silent on the roles of men and women within or without the home. Marriage expresses the reality that men AND women BOTH bring distinct, irreplaceable gifts to family life.

Marriage benefits children like no other relationship can. Every child has one mom and one dad and the lifelong, faithful union of a husband and a wife promotes healthy families for the common good of children.

Judge Bataillon ignores the precedent of the authoritative 8^th Circuit Court in favor of those that support his biases. He cites non-authoritative cases to carve out special recognition of same-sex couples to marry: two 2014 cases from other Circuit Courts, Baskin v. Bogan (a 7^th Circuit case) and Latta v. Otter (a 9^th Circuit case).

In his opinion, he cited those cases 15 times and 20 times, respectively. But the case that is actually authoritative and that overruled his previous decision, Citizens for Equal Protection v. Bruning, was only used six times in his substantive review.

Even after being overruled in 2006, Judge Bataillon again misinterprets the protections of the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. He argues that discrimination based on sexual orientation is the equivalent of discrimination based on gender. This is a fundamental misunderstanding.

For example, he refers to the United States v. Windsor case that overruled Congress’s Defense of Marriage Act but fails to discuss the fact that Windsor is only applicable to federal discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In fact, Windsor states specifically that the United States should remain deferential to the individual States when it comes to the States’ definition of marriage. Judge Bataillon and the 7^th and 9^th Circuit Court judges seem to ignore this fact or gloss over its existence.

No court can redefine marriage. The truth remains that marriage always has been, and always will be, the union of only one man and one woman.

Nebraska Family Alliance will continue to promote laws that strengthen and protect marriage, not undermine it. Nebraskans should be free to affirm through laws that a mom and a dad are both necessary and irreplaceable in the life of a child.