California Group Tries to Stop Marriage Amendment

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California Group Tries to Stop Marriage Amendment

Special Report - June 24, 2008
Homosexual advocates in California have filed a lawsuit in the California Supreme Court in the hopes of removing the initiative from the ballot, denying Californians the opportunity to vote on this matter in the November election. In a news release from Equality California (EQ), lawyers representing EQ, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief on June 20, 2008, arguing “that the rules for revising the California Constitution were not properly followed.”

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has already approved the Constitutional Amendment initiative for the November ballot, noting that the required amount of petition signatures to place the initiative on the ballot have been received.

In a statement from Ron Prentice, chairman of the ProtectMarriage coalition, commented, “This is an act of desperation. The voters deserve a chance to vote on this important issue …” Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Glen Lavy commented, “This is just another attempt to force a radical political agenda upon the people of California.” ProtectMarriage attorneys call the lawsuit’s legal reasoning “flimsy” and expect it to be rejected in court.

North Carolina currently does not have an amendment to its state constitution defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman and is therefore vulnerable to the same controversy surrounding California. Senate Bill 1608—Defense of Marriage, has been filed for the 2008 legislative session and, if approved, would give North Carolina voters the opportunity to vote on a state marriage amendment.