CHEYENNE - U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin's vote last week to prevent federal judges from reviewing the Defense of Marriage Act tramples a fundamental principle of the U.S. Constitution, Cale Case, one of her Republican challengers, said Monday.

In a July 22 release, Cubin announced her support of the bill to prevent "unelected, lifetime-appointed federal judges from forcing states like Wyoming to accept same-sex marriage licenses granted in other states."

The House passed the Marriage Protection Act 233 to 194 and it now goes to the Senate.

Case, a state senator and economist from Lander, said the House bill that Cubin supported makes it illegal for a federal judge to review the Defense of Marriage Act passed by Congress several years ago.

"This is not about gay marriage," Case said in a release issued Monday afternoon. "This is about our form of government and the fact that Congress cannot impose laws that violate the Constitution."

Judicial review of federal laws, Case said is a "basic aspect of our form of government, an aspect that our founding fathers believed critical to our system of checks and balances."

"I am disappointed that our only representative would throw away the Constitution in shameless pandering on the gay marriage issue," Case said.

Cubin and other supporters of the bill, he said, apparently believe that because the issue is gay marriage, they can prohibit judicial review of the law.

The ban could also be imposed on any other legislation passed by Congress, he said.

Cubin campaign spokesman Joe Milczewski emphasized Monday that Congress has the authority to limit the jurisdiction of the federal courts.

Case acknowledged that Milczewski is right, but said that authority is overridden by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the equal rights amendment.

Cubin, Milczewski said, "has been on the record for a long time as wanting to protect states like Wyoming from activist courts in places like Massachusetts from imposing gay marriage on the people of Wyoming."

"The courts are writing laws from the bench and that's something the framers of the Constitution never intended and that's something that Barbara wants to put a stop to," he added.

He also noted that Cubin is a cosponsor of the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

"That is probably the hottest issue we get mail over," he said, adding that the writers favor a ban of some kind.

Other candidates in the Aug. 17 Republican primary for the U.S. House, in addition to Cubin and Case, are Bruce Asay, Cheyenne; Marvin (Trip) Applequist , Farson, and Jim Altebaumer, Casper.

Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.