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Legal Commentary

: Althouse

Court rejects challenge to the form of the Wisconsin referendum on gay marriage.

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Wispolitics reports:

A Dane County judge upheld Wisconsin?s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage Friday, describing the propositions included in the referendum put to voters as ?two sides of the same coin.?
UW-Oshkosh instructor William McConkey challenged the amendment, arguing Wisconsin statutes limit referendums on constitutional amendments to a single question. McConkey?s attorneys argued that the marriage amendment asked voters to respond to two separate questions: how marriage should be defined in Wisconsin and whether marriage benefits should be allocated to unmarried people.

This decision is not surprising. I don't much like referendums, and I support same-sex marriage, but I don't like the use of a procedural hypertechnicality in court to thwart democracy. Defeat the amendment on the merits.

IN THE COMMENTS: Peter Hoh asks "What's the status of the amendment? Is it on the ballot for November?" No, it passed in 2006. This is an effort to invalidate it. "Defeat the amendment on the merits" was ambiguous. I only meant to say that if we're going to have referendums, the voters should prevail.

Full post as published by Althouse on May 30, 2008 (boomark / email).