The Marriage Law Project at The Catholic University of America

TOP6NEWS - August 30, 2004

1-NEWS: 4th Circuit will allow LA vote

2-NEWS: AR Supreme Court will fast track amendment challenge

3-NEWS: OK amendment challenge filed

4-NEWS: DOJ asks for dismissal in FL DOMA suit

5-NEWS: MI elections board deadlocks again

6-NEWS: RNC and ssm

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1-NEWS: 4th Circuit will allow LA vote

Court OKs Vote on La. Marriage Amendment
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 30, 2004
Filed at 11:12 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Gay-Marriage-Amendment.html
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A state appeals court ruled Monday that a proposed amendment to the state Constitution banning gay marriage should remain on the ballot, overturning a lower court ruling and sending the issue to the state Supreme Court.

The ruling came in one of three lawsuits filed by gay activists to keep the amendment off the Sept. 18 ballot.
John Rawls, a lawyer for the activists, said he planned to ask the state's highest court to consider the three cases together.

The ``Defense of Marriage'' amendment, passed by state lawmakers earlier this year, would also ban state officials and courts from recognizing out-of-state marriages and civil unions between homosexuals. ...

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2-NEWS: AR Supreme Court will fast track amendment challenge

Arkansas News Bureau, August 28, 2004
August 28, 2004
Date set for arguments in marriage amendment challenge
By Rob Moritz
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2004/08/28/News/280983.html
LITTLE ROCK - Oral arguments on a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages will be heard by the Arkansas Supreme Court on Sept. 23.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas filed a legal challenge to the proposed amendment on Thursday hoping to get it tossed off the Nov. 2 general election ballot.

In an order Friday morning, the Supreme Court gave the ACLU and the state attorney general's office until Sept. 15 to file briefs and until Sept. 20 to respond to the briefs.

The complaint names Secretary of State Charlie Daniels as defendant. His office certified the proposal for the ballot after counting nearly 96,000 valid signatures of registered voters. The measure needed 80,570 signatures to be certified for the ballot.

The attorney general's office also certified in March that the ballot title and popular name of the proposed amendment were sufficient, fair and not misleading.

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3-NEWS:OK amendment challenge filed

Associated Press, August 27, 2004
http://newsok.com/article/1304247/?template=home/main
Oklahoma ACLU opposes constitutional amendment
The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma asked the Supreme Court Friday to throw out a state question scheduled for the Nov. 2 general election ballot that would constitutionally ban gay marriage.

Among other things, the petition argues the state question is constitutionally vague, violates plaintiffs' civil rights, and usurps a provision of the Oklahoma Constitution prohibiting constitutional amendments embracing more than one subject.

Ten homosexual plaintiffs joined ACLU attorneys at a news conference outside the Capitol to decry the proposed constitutional amendment prohibiting marriage between two members of the same sex.

The plaintiffs argued State Question 711 denied them equal treatment under the 14th Amendment.
James Nimmo, standing beside his domestic partner, said he was guaranteed "fair and equal treatment in the public square and the public courts."

"I am not required to suffer in silence the intermingling of private religious and political discrimination with the public laws," Nimmo said.

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4-NEWS: DOJ asks for dismissal in FL DOMA suit

Feds Defend Gay Marriage Ban in Florida
By ADRIAN SAINZ
Associated Press Writer
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-gay-marriage-florida,0,7925693.story
August 28, 2004, 11:31 AM EDT
MIAMI -- The U.S. government has asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the 8-year-old federal law that bans gay marriage.

Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said it was the government's first direct legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman and allows states to refuse to recognize gay marriages from other states.

In the lawsuit, four same-sex couples argue that the 1996 law is unconstitutional. The Justice Department's motion to dismiss on Friday argues that the couples have no constitutional standing to challenge the federal law because they are not married in any state.

"As far as the federal defendant is aware, every court to address this question -- including the Supreme Court and the Eleventh Circuit -- has rejected federal constitutional challenges," the motion said.

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5-NEWS: MI elections board deadlocks again

Michigan elections board again deadlocks on gay marriage amendment
August 27, 2004, 5:03 PM
http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw103328_20040827.htm
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- The state elections board again deadlocked on a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman, disagreeing Friday over wording for the November ballot measure.

The Board of State Canvassers, on a 2-2 party-line vote, rejected a 35-word proposal recommended by the State Bureau of Elections.

Democratic canvassers Dorothy Jones and Doyle O'Connor argued the language should tell voters that some same-sex couples would lose their benefits.

The proposed wording is deceptive, O'Connor said, adding: "We're supposed to protect the public and the process."
But Republicans Katherine DeGrow and Eric Pelton, who voted to approve the language, said the board's job isn't to interpret how a new law would affect citizens.

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6-NEWS: RNC and ssm

Log Cabin Republicans
Gay Activists Demand a Seat in 'Big Tent'
Pataki, Specter Among Allies at N.Y. Rally
By Spencer S. Hsu and Vanessa Williams
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, August 30, 2004; Page A07
NEW YORK, Aug. 29 -- The gay Log Cabin Republicans, backed by such GOP allies as New York Gov. George E. Pataki and Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), said Sunday that the party has been "hijacked by the radical right" and demanded that President Bush square his actions with his rhetoric of inclusiveness or risk losing their endorsement.

At a "Big Tent" rally in a park blocks from Madison Square Garden, about 450 Log Cabin members from across the country -- and some of about 50 openly gay GOP convention delegates and alternates -- hailed Pataki, Specter and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for their pro-gay rights stand, drawing a contrast with the incumbent president.

"When you're talking about gay rights, it is a fundamental civil rights issue, and you ought not to count votes on it," Specter said. "In the long sweep of history, perhaps even in the short sweep of history, those who support gay rights and civil rights will be on the right side of this issue."

For many gay party activists this week, the Big Tent is a place of uncertainty, bitterness and disappointment.
Four years ago, they basked in what many thought was the warmth of compassionate conservatism, meeting with then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in Austin and backing his campaign for president. Now those leaders say they are confronted with stark choices: to stay home in November, switch parties or support a party that wants to codify discrimination against them in the form of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Log Cabin members, who cite exit polls showing that 1 million of 4.2 million gay voters supported Bush in 2000, including 45,000 in Florida, say the president has seriously jeopardized his chances of receiving their support when the group's 25-member national board meets Sept. 7.

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