California court upholds marriage ban; existing unions still legal
The California Supreme Court today upheld a ballot measure that amended the state Constitution to deny marriage rights to lesbians and gays. But the ruling did confirm the legality of 18,000 California marriages that were conducted between the time of a previous judicial order and the November election. Los Angeles Times (5/26) , ABC News (5/26) , San Jose Mercury News (Calif.)
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Group Renews Fight for Same-Sex Marriage in California
SAN FRANCISCO — As the California Supreme Court mulls the fate of a 2008 ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage, one of the state’s largest gay rights groups is laying the groundwork for a campaign to overturn the measure, perhaps as soon as next year.
The announcement by the group, Equality California, comes almost a year after the court’s initial decision to legalize same-sex marriage, a ruling that voters negated in November when they passed the ballot measure, Proposition 8. The proposition has since been challenged in court, but gay rights advocates worry the court will uphold it, and are preparing for the next stage of the fight.
“We’re hoping the court rules the right way, but we’re not counting on it,” said Marc Solomon, Equality California’s newly hired marriage director. “And we believe that 2010 is the right time to go back to the ballot.”
The possibility of a ballot measure to overturn Proposition 8 has been floated online and elsewhere since the election, but the announcement is a concrete signal that California might soon be embroiled in another electoral fight over same-sex marriage. The November campaign ranked as one of the most divisive and expensive ballot measure fights ever, with the two sides spending more than $80 million combined.
Opponents of same-sex marriage said a second campaign would be a mistake. “The fact is that the people of California have already spoken,” said Brian S. Brown, the executive director in National Organization for Marriage, in Princeton, N.J. “And they don’t like being told they were wrong the first time.”
Mr. Solomon, who came to California after several years of working on behalf of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, the first state to legalize such unions, in 2004, stopped short of announcing of a formal campaign to put the issue on the California ballot, which would require an extensive signature-gathering effort. See Group Renews Fight for Same-Sex Marriage in California New York Times * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Washington Values Alliance seeks to overturn “Everything-But-Marriage” legislation
Item: Washington Values Alliance seeks to overturn “Everything-But-Marriage” legislation/Rich Roesler, Eye On Olympia
More Info: As expected, Washington Values Alliance president Larry Stickney this afternoon filed a ballot measure to overturn Senate Bill 5688, which grants state-registered domestic partners most of the rights of married spouses. More than 5,000 couples have registered in the past two years, including many same-sex couples. See WVA Fights Domestic-Partners Law The Spokesman Review
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Proposal to strike ‘marriage’ from Calif. law
(Sacramento, California) California’s top election official says supporters can start collecting signatures for a proposed ballot measure to strike the word “marriage” from all state laws.
Supporters of this ballot measure want to replace it with the term “domestic partnership,” while keeping all the rights of marriage in place.
The proposal is …
Anti-gay group allowed to enter Arkansas adoption case
(Little Rock, Arkansas) A judge has ruled that that a lawsuit challenging an Arkansas law banning unmarried couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents can proceed - and that the conservative group behind the measure can present arguments in the case.
County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza dismissed a motion by Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel to dismiss the suit. Piazza then accepted an application by the Arkansas Family Council to enter the case.
The council was behind the successful ballot measure past last November that bans unmarried couples from adopting or fostering. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas filed suit, challenging the constitutionality of the law on behalf of a dozen families, some straight, some gay.
See Anti-gay group allowed to enter Arkansas adoption case
365Gay.com
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Gay Marriage: Is California’s Supreme Court Shifting?
The prospects of same-sex marriage in California grew dimmer Thursday, when two Supreme Court justices who helped create the right for gays to marry in last year’s historic decision expressed deep reservations about attempts to strike down a statewide referendum passed last fall to ban the practice. “You would have us choose between these two rights: the inalienable right to marry and the right of the people to change their constitution,” said Justice Joyce L. Kennard, one of those two key judges. “You ask us to willy-nilly disregard the right of the people to change the constitution of the state of California. But all political power is inherent in the people of California.” (See the top 10 ballot measures.)
The justices created the right to marry same-sex partners in California last year in a sweeping 4-3 decision. But in November, Californians went to the polls to amend the constitution to prohibit gay marriage. The amendment passed with 52% of the vote, but protests spread throughout the state in the days immediately after the vote. Several groups sued, arguing that stripping away the right to marriage amounted to such a serious change to the constitution that it should require more than a simple majority vote. (Read “A Brief History of Gay Marriage.”)
Chief Justice Ronald George, the Republican justice who authored last year’s opinion, appeared to agree that the barrier to constitutional amendments is far too low in California, noting that the Golden State has seen fit to amend its constitution no fewer than 500 times since 1911, while the U.S. Constitution has survived more than 200 years with just 27 amendments. But like Kennard, who had also voted with the majority to establish the right to gay marriage last year, George seemed to suggest Thursday that until the people of California raise the barrier for amendments, the court has little power to overturn their decisions.
See Gay Marriage: Is California’s Supreme Court Shifting? @ Time
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Illinois Mormons against civil unions?
Gay rights advocates fear that Mormons in Nauvoo might try to undermine civil unions up for debate in Springfield today. They point to the church’s overwhelming financial support of California’s Proposition 8, the successful ballot measure that made it illegal for lesbian and gay couples to marry.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, accused the Latter-day Saints of sending a private e-mail to Illinois members, urging them to contact state legislators and voice opposition to the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, a bill that would define “civil union” as a legal relationship between two persons, of either the same or opposite sex. It would also entitle both parties of a civil union to the same legal obligations, responsibilities, protections, and benefits afforded to spouses.
The bill has been scheduled for a hearing in the Illinois House of Representatives Youth and Family Committee today. If the bill is voted out of committee, it becomes eligible for a vote before the full Illinois House of Representatives.
But Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for the national church, said the e-mail was not part of a church wide opposition campaign. The church’s engagement with political causes is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. It is unclear if the Illinois legislation would violate church doctrine as interpreted by Latter-day Saints.
“As is widely known, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in the sanctity of traditional marriage,” she said in a statement. “The Church has not taken a position on any legislation currently being considered by the Illinois State Legislature … An e-mail was sent from a local Illinois Church leader to his congregation – one of 129 congregations in the state — who was free to express his own views.”
The e-mail in question was sent to at least one Mormon ward in Illinois and authorized by Bishop Chris Church of Nauvoo.
The message warns recipients that the legislation would “empower the public schools to begin teaching this lifestyle to our young children regardless of parental requests otherwise.”
MORE @ The Seeker – Chicago Tribune Blog
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California Court Weighing Gay Marriage Ban
SAN FRANCISCO — Under intense pressure from both sides in the debate over same-sex marriage, the California Supreme Court began hearing arguments Thursday morning on the future of a ballot initiative passed by voters last November that outlawed such unions.
Supporters and opponents of the measure, Proposition 8, began lining up in front of the courthouse in San Francisco before dawn, bringing with them signs, banners and a sense of tense anticipation.
“We knew we had to be here to see it with our own eyes,” said Katherine Stoner, 61, who had traveled from Monterey, with her partner of 34 years, Michelle Welsh.
Several ardent — and outnumbered — opponents of same-sex marriage also held signs with messages like “Gay = Pervert” and “A Moral Wrong Can’t be a Civil Right.”
Don J. Grundmann, a member of the American Warrior Ministry in San Leandro, Calif., said he believed that homosexuality was a “emotional pathology” that he feared would be taught to children.
“That’s the real objective,” Mr. Grundmann said.
Mr. Grundmann said he wanted to support traditional marriage between a man and a woman, which Proposition 8 affirmed in the November election, passing with 52 percent of the vote. Opponents have sued, saying the ballot measure violates the state constitution, setting up Thursday’s hearing.
The three-hour hearing is a critical legal test for both sides. But opponents of Proposition 8 also used Thursday’s hearing as a prime moment to rally their forces and demonstrate resilience after a stinging election loss that many among them believe could have been avoided. See California Court Weighing Gay Marriage Ban
New York Times – United States * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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California State Supreme Court meets on gay marriage
The California Supreme Court will hear arguments today on whether Proposition 8, the anti-gay-marriage initiative, should be upheld and, if so, whether the marriages of an estimated 18,000 same-sex couples should remain valid.
During a three-hour televised hearing this morning, the San Francisco-based high court will examine whether the November ballot measure was an impermissible constitutional revision or a more limited constitutional amendment.
The court will need to decide the fate of existing same-sex marriages only if it is prepared to uphold Proposition 8, which many legal analysts believe is likely.
The justices’ questions to lawyers often reveal how the court is leaning. Legal analysts will be carefully watching Chief Justice Ronald M. George, whose vote often determines whether the conservative or more liberal wing of the court prevails.
The state high court ruled 4 to 3 on May 15 that same-sex couples should be entitled to marry. George wrote the ruling, which was signed by Justices Joyce L. Kennard, Kathryn Mickle Werdegar and Carlos R. Moreno.
Justices Marvin R. Baxter, Ming W. Chin and Carol A. Corrigan voted against overturning the state’s previous ban on same-sex marriage, arguing that the matter should be left to voters.
After Proposition 8 passed, only Moreno voted to put the measure on hold pending a decision on the legal challenges. Kennard, who usually votes in favor of gay rights, voted against accepting the revision challenge to the proposition but said she would hear arguments over the validity of existing same-sex marriages.
Some legal analysts believe the vote signaled that Kennard did not believe the revision argument would prevail. Without her vote, the court would be unlikely to muster a majority for overturning the measure.
In addition to arguing that Proposition 8 was an illegal constitutional revision, gay rights lawyers contend that it usurped the authority of the courts.
The hearing, scheduled to start at 9 a.m. and end at noon, will be broadcast live on the California Channel and streamed on its website. See State Supreme Court meets on gay marriage
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Gay couples hold vigils urging justices to end Prop. 8
As rain fell and the song “Fidelity” blasted through the sound system, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presided Wednesday night over the “recommitment ceremonies” of a half-dozen gay couples who married during the five-month period that such weddings were legal in California.It was one of dozens of vigils held across California hours before the state Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the legal challenges to Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.
Many of the 200 or so people who attended Los Angeles’ vigil said they did not expect their demonstration to influence the justices who will decide whether Proposition 8 is valid.But they did want to send a public message, “to put a face on the issue,” as Kate Kuykendall put it. Kuykendall, 32, of El Segundo, wore a white wedding dress. She and her wife, Tori, 32, are featured in a video set to the Regina Spektor song “Fidelity,” which has become the gay marriage anthem.Events were held Wednesday night in cities and towns across California, from San Francisco to San Diego, as well as in Florida and Arizona — a sign that the political struggle will continue if the court rules against them, activists said. See Gay couples hold vigils urging justices to end Prop. 8
Los Angeles Times * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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