Editing Federal Marriage Amendment (section)

===Restriction of perceived judicial overreach===
Proponents of FMA argued that same-sex marriage advocates wanted to disregard [[federalism]] and use the judicial system to make same-sex marriage legal nationwide, and that only the Federal Marriage Amendment could forestall that.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}}

Proponents of the FMA initially argued that if it were not for judicial overreach, there would be no need for an FMA; states' rights would not be violated since no state legislatures had recognized same-sex marriage. However, by the end of 2012, a number of states had enacted same-sex marriage both through the actions of their state legislatures ([[Same-sex marriage in Vermont|Vermont]], [[Same-sex marriage in New Hampshire|New Hampshire]], [[Same-sex marriage in New York|New York]]), and through popular vote ([[Same-sex marriage in Maine|Maine]], [[Same-sex marriage in Maryland|Maryland]], [[Same-sex marriage in Washington (state)|Washington]]).

Prior to these legislative enactments and popular vote outcomes, proponents of the FMA argues that the federalism proposed by the opponents of a constitutional amendment was a contrivance for permitting federal courts to force same-sex marriage upon the whole nation, no matter what the people of the individual states desire. Proponents supported this claim with ''[[Citizens for Equal Protection v. Bruning]]'', in which a district court struck down Nebraska's marriage amendment, even though it had been passed by a margin of seventy percent (although the amendment was later reinstated). Opponents of the FMA argued that no federal court has ever ordered a state to permit same-sex marriage. However, on February 7, 2012, a federal appeals court in a 2-to-1 decision threw out California's voter-approved restriction on same-sex marriage (Proposition 8) saying that it violated the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.<ref>{{cite news|last=Nagourney|first=Adam|title=Court Strikes Down Ban on Gay Marriage in California|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/us/marriage-ban-violates-constitution-court-rules.html|access-date=July 2, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 2, 2012}}</ref>