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Twice-Divorced Florida AG: 'I'm Just Getting Started' Defending Marriage Ban
Twice-Divorced Florida AG: 'I'm Just Getting Started' Defending Marriage Ban
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi says she's only just begun to defend marriage discrimination.
Apparently defending three lawsuits challenging her state's ban on same-sex marriage is just the beginning for Florida's Republican attorney general, Pam Bondi.
In the wake of Thursday's ruling from U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, which found that Florida's voter-approved state constitutional amendment barring marriage equality violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution, Bondi said her defense of marriage discrimination is "just getting started," reports the Orlando Sun-Sentinel.
Bondi has already filed appeals in three state court cases, in which three judges each ruled against the state's antigay law, approved by 62 percent of voters in 2008. Now she's pledging to do the same with the first federal ruling to strike down Florida's ban on marriage equality.
"We want finality," Bondi, who has been divorced twice, said Thursday at a meeting of Republican supporters in Palm Beach County. "There are good people on both sides. We want finality. That's what we need. The U.S. Supreme Court's going to hear this. They are going to make this determination. And if you hear that I have criticized people personally, I have not. I never will. This is me doing my job as attorney general. And I will continue to do that and if anybody wants me to moderate my message or stand for less I have a message for them: I am just getting started."
Afterward, responding to reporters' questions about if Bondi might follow the lead of attorneys general in nine other states -- who have stopped defending their states' ban on same-sex marriage in court -- Bondi positioned herself in opposition to her Democratic opponents, who have said they would drop Florida's appeals if elected.
"All I'm going to say is I put my hand on a Bible and I raised my right hand and swore to uphold the Constitution of the state of Florida," she said, according to the Sentinel. "This was voted into our Florida's Constitution by 62 percent of the voters not even six years ago."
Bondi is up for reelection this November.
