President Bush announced Tuesday his support to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Bush’s comments came under intense attack from gay rights activists as well as many constitutional scholars. The announcement comes on the heels of San Francisco’s decision to grant marriage licenses to more than 3,000 same sex couples and a Massachusetts court decision that ordered the state to soon allow same-sex marriages. But the timing of the announcement was also viewed as part of an election year strategy to reach out to social conservatives who provided the backbone of Bush’s support in 2000. According to the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, Bush had intended to sidestep the battle over constitutional marriage but decided he had to take up the issue in order to secure his socially conservative base of supporters who had “grown restless over the budget deficit, government spending and his plan to liberalize immigration.” Democratic presidential frontrunners Senators John Kerry and John Edwards have both said that they’re against the Constitutional amendment and back civil unions over gay marriage. Dennis Kucinich has publicly supported gay marriage. According to constitutional scholars, Prohibition marks the only time the constitution has been amended to curtail public freedoms. Despite Bush’s highly publicized endorsement, passing an amendment to the Constitution is not easy. The amendment must win two-thirds support in both the Senate and House and be ratified by 38 states.