Gay - Marriage Ban
Group Sues Calif. AG
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, August 3, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO -- The sponsors
of a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage sued
California's attorney general Tuesday over the summary the state prepared for
the group's signature-gathering petitions.
The lawsuit claims Attorney General Bill Lockyer inaccurately described the
measure, which would also strip same-sex couples of domestic partnership rights.
The suit says Locker, a Democrat, highlighted the amendment's effects on
registered domestic partners instead of explaining that its chief purpose was to
preserve marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
''The Attorney General has failed to carry out his duty to prepare a neutral,
factual title and summary,'' said Mathew Staver, whose Liberty Counsel law firm
is representing
VoteYesMarriage.com.
Staver wants the court to order Lockyer to revise the petition language.
Until the matter is resolved, the group won't be circulating the petitions
required to gather the 598,105 signatures it needs to qualify the amendment for
the June 2006 ballot.
Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar defended the attorney general's summary of the
amendment, saying it was a fair representation that a judge is likely to uphold.
''The title and summary is 100 percent accurate in describing what the
initiative would do,'' Dresslar said. ''It wipes out registered domestic
partner rights and obligations that currently exist in California law.''
Meanwhile, a second group that also wants to ban gay marriage and do away with
domestic partner rights in California with a constitutional amendment has begun
gathering signatures. That amendment is sponsored by a group called
ProtectMarriage.com.
Elsewhere Tuesday, gay marriage opponents filed a ballot initiative aimed at
amending the Massachusetts Constitution to ban gay marriages. The
initiative would define marriage as between a man and a woman.
The measure is part of an effort to overturn same-sex marriage, which the state
Supreme Judicial Court legalized in 2003. Massachusetts is the only state
to allow gay and lesbian marriages.
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