Activist Calls for Ouster of Maryland Lawmaker for Thwarting Will of People
by Allie Martin and Jody Brown
February 16, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A pro-family activist is calling for the resignation of the speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates. He accuses the lawmaker of subverting the will of the people.
Over the past several years, 19 states have approved measures protecting traditional marriage, most often amending their state constitution to do so. At least nine other states are slated to consider similar protections at election time later this year. Just yesterday (February 15), the Idaho Legislature sent to the state's November ballot a measure that would amend the state constitution barring all forms of "domestic legal unions" except marriage between one man and one woman.
Many pro-family voters in Maryland were hoping to have that chance this fall as well. But shortly before state lawmakers were to vote on a measure last month that would send a marriage protection amendment to voters, the delegates went into recess -- and the bill was killed in committee. As Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council writes in a column in the Baltimore Sun, the citizens of Maryland were given the opportunity to watch "democratically elected officials shy away from the democratic process."
As Sprigg explains, a petition to bring the measure to the House floor for a vote was successful. But rather than have the bill debated, House Speaker Michael Busch adjourned the session, leading to the bill's one-vote defeat before the Judiciary Committee.
Joe Glover is president of the Family Policy Network, a family advocacy group based in Washington, DC, with ten state chapters -- one of which is in Maryland. Glover says Busch's tactics demonstrate the Maryland House speaker should not hold office.
"As far as I'm concerned, the members of the House of Delegates and the citizens of Maryland should call for the House speaker to resign," says Glover. "This is the kind of tyranny that our forefathers left foreign shores to escape."
He believes Busch was out of line to usurp voters' chances to speak on the matter. "When he sees that enough delegates will bring that [marriage protection measure] to a House floor vote, just to send it to the people for them to decide -- he steps in and thwarts the will of the Legislature and the will of the people at the same time," he states.
Busch, says Glover, is "not fit to serve the very people that he's there to serve. He's not fit to serve as the Speaker of the House of Delegates if he's going to willingly thwart the will of the people and even the will of the Legislature in order to redesign marriage for generations to come."
The issue is certainly on the front burner in Maryland. Last month a state judge ruled that same-sex "marriage" should be legalized in Maryland -- but polls show that 68 percent of Maryland residents do not favor homosexual marriage. In addition, Democrats in the state reportedly are fearful that Republicans would benefit if a marriage amendment were on the ballot.
The FRC's Sprigg offers a simple solution to that dilemma: just endorse the measure. "It worked for President Bill Clinton when he signed the federal Defense of Marriage Act into law in 1996," he notes.
