Dear Representative Barton,

On Tuesday, February 24, President Bush announced his support for an amendment to the United States Constitution that would limit the institution of marriage to unions of one man with one woman.

Of course, in order for the Constitution to be amended, a bill proposing such action must first pass in both houses of Congress before being ratified by state legislatures. So, as a citizen of the state of Texas, I now write you to request that you oppose this drastic course of action.

As I myself am a sincere Christian concerned with my own morality and the values I will instill in my children, I understand the moral underpinnings of the widespread opposition to gay marriage. However, I do not believe that the morality or immorality of gay marriage is an issue here. Rather, the key issues at stake here are the use of the Constitution to legislate morality and the attempt of both the Executive and Legislative branches of the federal government to upset the system of checks and balances our Founding Fathers intended for our government.

The last attempt by Congress to legislate morality by amending the Constitution was the 18th Amendment, ratified in 1919. As history has revealed, it was disastrous and later repealed. To put it simply, the great men who wrote that great document never intended for it to be used in such a manner. Its purpose is to set forth the framework for our government and to place limitations on how that government can restrict the freedom of the people, not to codify such restrictions in it.

And all of the President's talk of “activist judges” redefining marriage against the will of the people is nothing more than political posturing. Again, we can look to the wisdom of the Founding Fathers in their provision for a judicial branch of government that is not beholden to an electorate and thus not forced to decide cases based on popular opinion. They have the freedom to make decisions that protect minorities even when the