Editing Federal Marriage Amendment (section)

===2002===
[[File:Ronnie Shows bioguide.jpg|180px|thumb|[[Ronnie Shows]], sponsor of the first Federal Marriage Amendment]]
The original proposed Federal Marriage Amendment was written by the [[Alliance for Marriage]] under [[Matthew Daniels]] with the assistance of former [[Solicitor General of the United States|Solicitor General]] and failed [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] nominee Judge [[Robert Bork]], Professor [[Robert P. George]] of [[Princeton University]], and Professor Gerard V. Bradley of [[Notre Dame Law School]].<ref>Cooperman, Alan. (February 14, 2004) [https://web.archive.org/web/20110629015242/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40866-2004Feb13 "Little Consensus on Marriage Amendment: Even Authors Disagree on the Meaning of Its Text"] ''[[The Washington Post]]''. Retrieved August 18, 2007.</ref><ref name="WSJ2004">{{cite news |last1=SchlesingerStaff |first1=Jacob M. |title=How Gay Marriage Thrust 2 Outsiders Onto Center Stage |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB107749245871536123 |access-date=3 March 2022 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=24 February 2004}}</ref> It was introduced in the [[107th United States Congress]] in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] on May 15, 2002, by Representative [[Ronnie Shows]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]-[[Mississippi|Miss.]]) with 22 cosponsors,<ref>{{cite news|title=Marriage Amendment Preserves Male-Female Union|url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,52891,00.html|access-date=October 7, 2012|newspaper=Fox News|date=May 16, 2002}}</ref> and read:

{{blockquote|Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.}}

The bill was designated H.J.Res 93 and was immediately referred to the [[United States House Committee on the Judiciary|House Committee on the Judiciary]]. On July 18, 2002, it was referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, which took no action on it.<ref>Shows, Ronnie, et al. (May 15, 2002) [https://web.archive.org/web/20150426211324/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:h.j.res.00093 H.J.RES.93 Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage] [[United States House of Representatives]], [[Library of Congress]]. Retrieved July 1, 2013.</ref>