Miscellaneous

Rewarding Good Work: Same-Sex Marriage Article Digs Deep

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Is there an Oscar(tm) or some type of pat on the back for Nice Use of Legislative Information?

It's not often that we read an article with in-depth explanations of complex issues. Lawsuit Expected in N.Y. Same-Sex Marriage Recognition, Joseph Spector, GNS (May 20, 2008) is a great example of "how to."

Yay for contacting NCSL and using their information wisely. It's easy to write about same-sex marriage (everyone's doing it), but not so easy to convey the difficult points such as the difference between state constitutions that do not define marriage, states with civil unions or domestic partnerships, and other permutations.

This reporter obviously passed social studies, too; he makes the distinction between the various (we believe there are three!) branches of government, and how each is trying to play a role in marriage policy.

Is it wrong to sound so amazed? We talk about "educating voters," but maybe we need to start with the Fourth Estate so we can see more good work like this.

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on May 30, 2008 (boomark / email).