Supreme Court takes up dispute over endorsement of gay adoption by Florida Bar’s family-law section
State Supreme Court justices critically questioned both sides today in a dispute over whether the family-law section of the Florida Bar should be allowed to legally endorse adoption for gay couples. A circuit judge in Miami threw out the statute banning adoption by gays but the case is headed for the Supreme Court. The Bar itself has not taken a position but its family-law section sought to file a “friend of the court” brief supporting the circuit court ruling. Lawyers supporting the statute objected — saying the Bar shouldn’t be using compulsory dues paid by all lawyers to fight on one side of a controversial issue.
Tallahassee attorney Barry Richard said the family section is a voluntary association and that its lawyer members have a right to take positions. But Matt Staver, representing the conservative Liberty Counsel, said Bar rules forbid lobbying on either side of a hot topic.
The attorneys argued over the distinction between lobbying the Legislature and filing a legal brief in court. They also disagreed about whether a voluntary section of the bar is restrained by the same rules applying to the full bar.
Chief Justices Peggy Quince and Justices Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis, Charles Canady and Ricky Polston pressed Richard and Staver on the legal distinctions.
Pariente said that if the prohibition on pursuing controversial, divisive issues had been interpreted as a ban 50 years ago, the Bar could not have taken sides on racial integration. Lewis said he doesn’t think much of “friend of the court” briefs, because they are usually partisan advocacy rather than independent guidance on the law, and that the public doesn’t make a distinction between a section of the Bar and the whole Bar itself.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/supreme-court…
Civil unions reawaken gay marriage divisions in Hawaii
The decade-old battle lines over same-sex marriage in Hawaii are being redrawn as lawmakers consider civil unions.
Opponents of civil union measures say it’s just same-sex marriage in a different package. Supporters say public opinion has shifted since Hawaii became the first state to ban gay marriage in its constitution.
An overflow crowd came to testify on one of several measures that would give same-sex partners rights through civil unions much like those in legal marriage.
“My wife got sick not long ago, she was in the hospital, no one questioned my right to be there by her side,” said Eric Gill, representing the Local 5 union.
Opponents stood sharply against any other rights beyond the reciprocal beneficiaries status conferred as a compromise after Hawaii’s gay marriage ban.
“You will be circumventing the will of the 70 percent of the people who voted your constituents who set you a strong and clear message by their vote to preserve traditional marriage,” said opponent Honolulu City Councilmember Gary Okino.
“The public opinion on this issue has changed dramatically,” said proponent Alan Spector of the Family Equality Coalition. “Today in 2009 this is not the controversial issue that is was in the 1990s.”
“If we feel that the tide has changed and that the people of Hawaii are now saying that we want same-sex marriage, then let’s put it to a (public) vote,” said Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona, an opponent of civil unions.
See Civil unions reawaken gay marriage divisions
KHON2 – Honolulu,HI,USA
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/civil-unions-…
