Chris Christie Is Not Down With DOMA Decision [Video]

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie believes marriage should be between one man and one woman.

With that in mind, during a radio interview yesterday Christie slammed the US Supreme Court decision released yesterday that declared certain provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.

The moderate Republican has vowed to veto any same-sex marriage legislation in New Jersey because he believes that the voters — not the politicians — should decide whether the state constitution should be amended to make it legal and permissible.

As far as the high court’s 5-4 DOMA ruling is concerned, Christie said…

I don’t think the ruling was appropriate.. I think it was wrong.

Christie explained that the ruling reminds him of how the New Jersey Supreme Court goes about its business. “The court without a basis substituted their own judgment for the judgment of a Republican Congress and a Democratic president [Bill Clinton]… I thought Justice Kennedy’s opinion in many respects was incredibly insulting to those people… three hundred forty some Members of Congress voted for the Defense of Marriage Act… it’s another example of judicial supremacy rather than the government run by the people we actually vote for. So I thought it was a bad decision, but it has no effect on New Jersey at all so we move from here.”

Christie has already vetoed one gay marriage bill and said he would do so again. “Let the people decide,” Christie insisted. The governor added that the legislature intends to put a minimum wage increase up for referendum but the majority Democrats controlling the legislature oppose letting the citizens similarly vote on gay marriage. “You’re talking about changing an institution that’s over 2,000 years old… the Democrats are putting an increase to the minimum wage on the ballot. That’s important enough to put on the ballot. But gay marriage is not. That’s something the people should decide, but not whether same-sex marriage should happen in New Jersey.

Added Christie: “Let’s call it what it is; it’s politics… if [gay marriage] is overwhelmingly popular, put it on the ballot and it will pass.”

The governor may not be correct when he declared that the DOMA ruling has no effect on his state. As many observers have pointed out, it’s only a question of time before a same-sex married couple moves from state a where it is allowed to state b where it isn’t and then files a lawsuit to compel state b to recognize the marriage.

What do you think of Chris Christie’s reaction to the DOMA Supreme Court ruling?