Rep. John Becker, R-Union Township, is accusing U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Black of “malfeasance and abuse of power.”

In July Black ordered that Ohio must recognize, what Becker called in his Friday statement the “homosexual marriage” of John Arthur and James Obergefell.

“I am writing you today to express my concerns about the federal government’s ever growing propensity to violate state sovereignty,” Becker wrote Friday in a letter Wenstrup, a Columbia-Tusculum Republican.

“Judge Black has demonstrated his incompetence by allowing his personal political bias to supersede jurisprudence,” Becker wrote. “This will begin the process of restoring state sovereignty back to the original intent of the US Constitution.”

In a prepared emailed statement, Wenstrup said he will rely on the appellate process to decide the constitutionality.

“While Judge Black’s ruling violated the Ohio Constitution and the will of Ohio voters, the question of whether this decision also violated the U.S. Constitution remains before a higher court,” the statement said. “I will watch those appellate proceedings closely to see if Judge Black’s decision is upheld and I have full confidence in the Ohio’s office of the Attorney General during the appeals process.”