Brazilian judge declares Supreme Tribunal decision favoring civil unions ‘unconsitutional’

by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent

GOIÁS, Brazil, June 21, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) — A Brazilian judge has nullified the civil union of two homosexuals in the state of Goias, and has declared that a recent decision by the nation’s Supreme Federal Tribunal legalizing the practice is “unconstitutional.”

Jeronymo Pedro Villas Boas, a municipal judge, says the nation’s highest court “went beyond the limits” of its authority when it recently decreed that homosexuals have a right to civil unions, directly contradicting the Brazilian Constitution.  He called the decision “illegitimate and unconstitutional” and ordered the couple’s union struck from the registry.

Boas’ decision has enraged homosexualist activists and at least one Tribunal judge, Luis Fux, who called it “an attack on the decision of the Supreme Tribunal, which can be appealed,” and warned that complaints in such matters “are taken to disciplinary organs so that the autonomy [of a judge] does not harm the people.”

However, Boas says that he does not seek to attack the Supreme Tribunal, but “only to follow the Constitution.” He notes that homosexual unions “do not exist in the constitutional system of Brazil.”

The decision of the Supreme Federal Tribunal to decide in favor of permitting homosexual civil unions, which was issued in early May, contradicts the explicit wording of the nation’s constitution, which limits such unions to heterosexual couples.

Article 226 of the Constitution states that “for effects of state protection, a stable union is recognized between a man and a woman as a family entity, requiring the law to to facilitate its implementation.”

Previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Brazil supreme court defies Constitution, grants homosexual civil unions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/brazil-supreme-court-defies-constitution-grants-homosexual-civil-union/

Source: LifeSiteNews.com

Julio Severo in English:

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