WASHINGTON -- Language forbidding same-sex marriage does not belong in the Constitution, a Yale University Law School professor told members of Congress Wednesday.

"Amending a constitution is serious business," R. Lea Brilmayer said in written testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "(T)here is nothing the matter with the U.S. Constitution that would require an amendment defining marriage or specifying the consequences of a marriage in another state."

An expert in "conflict of laws" between states, Brilmayer denied critics’ assertions that same-sex marriages granted in one state must be honored by states that forbid the practice, calling the claim "mistaken" and "ignorant."