00                      SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 10                                                                    
01 Supporting the federal marriage amendment.                                                                              
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
03       WHEREAS traditional marriage is a fundamental social institution, deeply rooted in                              
04 all societies, that has been tested, reaffirmed, and celebrated as the cornerstone of society for                       
05 thousands of years; and                                                                                                 
06       WHEREAS the strength and success of a culture and its individuals directly depends                              
07 on the stability and permanence of its foundations; and                                                                 
08       WHEREAS courts across the country have recently issued inconsistent decisions                                   
09 about marriage that are in violation of established legal procedures, unmindful of long-                                
10 standing traditions, and contrary to the will of the vast majority of the public; and                                   
11       WHEREAS the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has begun allowing same-sex                                           
12 marriages, thus creating tremendous confusion and legal uncertainty in the remaining states                             
13 regarding the full faith and credit of those unions in other jurisdictions; and                                         
14       WHEREAS federal law has been understood for more than 200 years to decree that a                                
15 marriage is the legal union of a man and a woman as husband and wife and that a spouse is a                             
16 husband or wife of the opposite sex; and                                                                                

01       WHEREAS, more than a century ago, the United States Supreme Court wrote of the                                
02 "union for life of one man and one woman in the holy estate of matrimony" in Murphy v.                                  
03 Ramsey, 114 U.S. 15, 45 (1885); and                                                                                     
04       WHEREAS, in 1996, the United States Congress passed and President Clinton signed                              
05 into the law the Defense Of Marriage Act, defining marriage in federal law as a "legal union                            
06 between one man and one woman as husband and wife"; and                                                                 
07       WHEREAS there are currently 43 states with statutory definitions of marriage as the                             
08 union between one man and one woman; and                                                                                
09       WHEREAS currently 16 states have adopted constitutional amendments that protect                                 
10 the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman; and                                                   
11       WHEREAS, in 1996, the Nineteenth Alaska State Legislature amended AS 25.05 to                                 
12 declare that marriage is a union between one man and one woman and to declare that same-                                
13 sex marriages are prohibited in Alaska; and                                                                             
14       WHEREAS, in November 1998, the people of the State of Alaska approved                                         
15 Legislative Resolve 71, Twentieth Alaska State Legislature, to amend art. I of the                                    
16 Constitution of the State of Alaska by adding sec. 25, which states, "to be valid or recognized                         
17 in this State, a marriage may exist only between one man and one woman";                                                
18       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature is committed to continuing to                                  
19 defend, promote, and support the historic role of the family as the basic unit of our society and                       
20 legal marriage as the union of one man and one woman; and be it                                                         
21       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the 109th United                                       
22 States Congress to approve Senate Joint Resolution 1, known as the Marriage Protection                                  
23 Amendment, that proposes to amend the Constitution of the United States by defining the                                 
24 institution of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.                                                           
25       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable George W. Bush, President                              
26 of the United States; the Honorable Richard B. Cheney, Vice-President of the United States                              
27 and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Bill Frist, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate;                         
28 the Honorable Harry Reid, Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable J. Dennis                                   
29 Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Tom DeLay, Majority                                
30 Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader of                             
31 the U.S. House of Representatives; and the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Lisa                                 

01 Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of                                  
02 the Alaska delegation in Congress.