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Rep. Trent Franks prepares secretive hearing on Defense of Marriage Act

Update, 10:50 a.m. EST: This post now includes a witness list for the hearing. The U.S. House Subcommittee on the Constitution is scheduled to hold a hearing

Jul 31, 20206.3K Shares319.9K Views
*Update, 10:50 a.m. EST: This post now includes a witness list for the hearing. *
The U.S. House Subcommittee on the Constitution is scheduled to hold a hearingFriday titled “Defending Marriage,” called by subcommittee chairman Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who has recently called for the impeachmentof President Barack Obama because of his decision to order his administration to no longer defendthe constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Neither the witness list nor the intent of the hearing has been made public. A representative of the Subcommittee on the Constitution told The American Independent to expect release of probably three witness names and written testimony by 10 a.m. Thursday morning via the committee’s website. (Update: The list is now posted on the Judiciary Committee’s website.)
People For the American Way Senior Fellow Peter Montgomery predicts Franks’ hearing will be a parade of “extremists.”
Montgomery told TAI during a phone interview that Rep. Franks is “at the far-right fringe of the far right.” Montgomery also assumed the only purpose of the Franks Defending Marriage hearing would be “To promote that far-right agenda and provide them propaganda against the administration from here until 2012.”
Franks is the founderof an official Focus on the Family affiliate called the Center for Arizona Policy(CAP). Formerly known as the Arizona Family Research Institute, the CAP was instrumental in the passage of Arizona’s Prop 102 adding an amendmentto Arizona’s constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
Montgomery would not speculate on who would be called as witnesses. But according to a recent articlein The Washington Blade, Maggie Gallagher, chair of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM) said that she would appreciate the chance to speak at a hearing on DOMA. (Update: Gallagher is scheduledto appear at the hearing.) Gallagher has testifiedon marriage laws before the Subcommittee on the Constitution previously and recently before the New Hampshireand Marylandlegislatures. The Maryland legislature unexpectedly shelved a billto legalize same-sex marriage last month that was believed to have broad support.
Montgomery told TAI he experienced Franks’ views first hand at the Take Back America conference in St. Louis in 2009. In a speech at the event, Franks calledPresident Obama, “An enemy of humanity.” During the conference, Franks also staked claim on his belief in the “birther” conspiracy.
“This is the kind of ranting you would expect to hear from a talk show host, not a subcommittee chair,” Montgomery said of Franks’ statements.
But the statements made at the 2009 conference are just a sample of Franks’ far right positions.
Franks, along with other representatives, claimeda Muslim civil rights group was using congressional interns to spy on Congress. Franks also aligned himself with a movement that believes abortion policy is committing genocideagainst African Americans going so far as to introduce legislationbarring so-called “race-based” abortion — a bill that led the chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation to praise Franksfor being “a trailblazer.”
Franks’ co-sponsor of that bill was fellow Judiciary subcommittee member, Vice-Chair Mike Pence (R-Ind.). Pence has been in the national spotlight since introducing the eponymous Pence Amendmentaimed at defunding Planned Parenthood –- an issue that nearly causeda government shutdown last week.
TAI recently reportedon Pence’s connection to Focus on the Family affiliate — the Indiana Family Institute — that led the successful effort to pass an anti-gay marriage amendment in the Indiana Senate last month.
A call for comment to Representative Franks’ office was not returned.
Hajra Shannon

Hajra Shannon

Reviewer
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