Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi came under fire last week when she moved to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to have Florida recognize same-sex marriages from other states. In her brief, she wrote it would "impose significant public harm."
Well, today Bondi released a statement reminding Floridians that they were the ones who voted to enact the ban by 62 percent in 2008 and voted her into office in 2010 to uphold Florida's laws. She also not-so-subtly reminds Floridians several times that the power to recognize same-sex marriage in the state is still in their hands.
"In 2008, Florida voters amended their state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. In response to a recent challenge to this provision, and in keeping with my sworn duty to uphold the laws of the land, my office recently filed a legal brief defending the voters' decision," she writes.
"The fundamental argument of our brief is that the voters had the right to adopt this definition of marriage, just as they have the right in the future to change their minds and afford legal recognition to same-sex marriage, should they so choose."
She goes on to state that the "harm" was in "a federal injunction overriding the will of Florida voters," not in gay marriage itself.
"I'm simply doing my job, because my job is not to write the law, but to defend it," she concludes.
The backlash to Bondi's brief was swift. Some even pointed out how Bondi herself has been married and divorced twice.
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