Senate Passes Marriage Amendment Bill

Voters in North Carolina will decide next May whether to add an amendment to the state constitution that would ban gay marriage. Earlier today, the state Senate voted with a three-fifths majority in favor of a proposed amendment that recognizes marriage as being between one man and one woman. The House passed the measure yesterday. Republican Senator Buck Newton says adding such an amendment to the state constitution would make it more difficult for judges to overturn bans on same-sex marriage.

Buck Newton:" Everybody knows that that's what this amendment is about. It is to let the people decide that they are not going to have some unelected judge-or even an elected judge- that today, after two thousand years, we're going to redefine what a marriage is."
There are potential legal challenges against same-sex marriage in six other states. Earlier this year, a federal judge in California upheld a ruling that struck down California's ban on same-sex unions.