Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain now says he supports a federal marriage amendment that would ban same-sex marriage across the United States.
In an interview Saturday with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody, Cain said he no longer supports state’s rights to legislate marriage equality, and that the movement to overturn the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has prompted him to now support federal intervention.
“I think marriage should be protected at the federal level also. I used to believe that it could be just handled by the states but there’s a movement going on to basically take the teeth out of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and that could cause an unraveling, so we do need some protection at the federal level because of that and so yes I would support legislation that would say that it’s between a man and a woman.”
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Just one week ago, Cain appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and told host David Gregory that although he is pro-traditional marriage, if elected president he “wouldn’t seek a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage,” and that “the states would make up their own minds.”
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Cain, who says he believes being gay is a “choice,” previously said, in an Oct. 4 appearance on ABC’s “The View,” that he would govern according to the Constitution versus his personal opinion.
The Defense Of Marriage Act has been under judicial scrutiny since last year, when U.S. District Court judge Joseph Tauro ruled against the law, saying that it violated the 14th and 10th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
It has since been deemed unconstitutional by the Obama administration, which has refused to defend the law in federal court, as well as several courts around the nation.