THE FIGHT IS IN THE STATES: From the San Francisco Chronicle

Washington may be getting the attention in the political battle over a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, but the real fight is in the states, where events are moving rapidly with enormous consequences for both sides.

The outcomes of these state battles -- about 30 -- will be much more immediate than any federal amendment, which faces formidable barriers to enactment. Proponents and opponents of same-sex marriage are pouring energy and money into ferocious state lobbying campaigns. Both sides believe these fights, primarily over proposed state constitutional amendments or laws to ban same-sex marriage, will lay the groundwork for an eventual U.S. Supreme Court ruling. ...

Just last Friday, Wisconsin's state Assembly cleared a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

In the past two weeks, three state legislatures -- in Maine, Indiana and Georgia -- narrowly defeated attempts to amend their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage. Georgia's measure failed by just three votes, Maine's by just one. On March 3, Utah's legislature sent to its voters a November ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. On Feb. 18, Wyoming's legislature defeated an amendment to deny recognition of same-sex marriages from other states. The Massachusetts Legislature convenes today for a second time a constitutional convention aimed at banning same-sex marriage.

To date, four states -- Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada and Nebraska -- have amended their constitutions to ban same-sex marriage. Nebraska's amendment is being challenged in court by Lambda Legal Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union. The state's attorney general, Jon Bruning, told a Senate committee last week that a federal judge as much as said that Nebraska will lose the case and predicted it will end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"State constitutional amendments are not secure," Bruning said. "In Nebraska, ours is to be struck down ... and I think state statutes face the same risks," he said. He predicted that the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act will soon come under assault in the courts as well. The key for gay rights advocates is keeping constitutional amendments away from voters. No ban on same-sex marriage -- even in liberal, Democratic- leaning states such as California and Hawaii -- has ever lost at the ballot box.

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posted by Eve at 11:25 AM | link

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