Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum
Oregon AG to implement gay marriage if ban falls
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon’s attorney general told a federal court Tuesday why she believes the state’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages violates the federal constitutional rights of homosexual couples. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum added that Oregon is prepared to implement gay marriages if a federal judge strikes down the ban.
Rosenblum announced last month that she would not defend the state’s same-sex marriage ban in court.
Two lawsuits alleging that Oregon’s 2004 ban violates the U.S. Constitution have been consolidated. U.S. District Judge Michael McShane has scheduled April 23 oral arguments.
In a 35-page brief filed Tuesday, Rosenblum said there is no rational justification for maintaining the gay marriage ban, The Oregonian reported. She also said that federal constitutional protections for same-sex couples have become clear since Oregon voters approved the ban.
Allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry is not a redefinition of marriage, the attorney general wrote. Instead, she said the plaintiffs in this case “seek the same right to marry that the state offers opposite-sex couples and not a right to any newly invented form of marriage.”
Court rulings that have affected the national debate include the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to strike down part of the federal law that prevented the government from recognizing same-sex marriages.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also recently found that gays and lesbians cannot be precluded from jury duty because of their sexual orientation. That ruling extended civil rights protections to gays that the U.S. Supreme Court previously promised only to women and racial minorities.
The two decisions create an atmosphere that Rosenblum and several other attorneys general believe will make defenses of gay-marriage bans unlikely to succeed.
Oregon’s marriage ban cannot survive “when it is apparent that the reason for the ban was to enshrine in the state constitution a belief that same-sex couples are disfavored,” Rosenblum wrote.
Mike Marshall, the campaign manager for Oregon United for Marriage, was delighted.
“We are literally counting down the days until all loving and committed couples in Oregon have the freedom to marry, and we are thrilled that the attorney general is on the right side of history,” he said.
The group is leading an initiative campaign that would overturn Oregon’s ban. Marshall has previously said the group may not seek to put its measure on the ballot if McShane rules against the ban.
Officials of the Oregon Family Council, which has supported the prohibition on same-sex marriage, could not be reached for comment.
Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, criticized Rosenblum’s earlier announcement that she would not defend the ban, saying she was “shamefully abandoning her constitutional duty to defend the marriage amendment overwhelmingly enacted by the people of Oregon.”
In several other states, federal judges have voided all or part of voter-approved bans on same-sex marriage. Appeals are pending.
Despite risky votes, most Illinois lawmakers win in primaries
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Several Illinois state lawmakers who cast tough votes on pensions and gay marriage fended off expensive primary challenges Tuesday.
The targeted challenges were among the toughest primary races in a year in which all 118 House seats and a third of 59 Senate seats are up. Overall, there were 27 primary contests for House seats this month, but just two in the Senate.
Among Republicans, one of two House members running for re-election who voted in favor of gay marriage last fall survived a challenge fueled by conservative family groups. Rep. Ed Sullivan defeated bus driver Bob Bednar, both of Mundelein. The other, Rep. Ron Sandack of Downers Grove, was trailing Waubonsee
High School teacher Keith Matune late Tuesday, but the race was still too close to call.
Sullivan said his race ultimately came down to fiscal issues.
“My district does not believe that marriage equality is the number one issue,” he told The Associated Press.
AFSCME, the state’s largest employee union, and other organized labor groups teamed up in an effort to defeat several Democratic House members from Chicago who supported the pension overhaul. The measure, approved by lawmakers in December, is estimated to save $145 billion over 30 years, largely by cutting workers benefits.
Six-term Rep. Toni Berrios lost her primary election to journalist Will Guzzardi, who had heavy support from unions fearful lawmakers would turn next to cutting municipal employee pensions. Berrios had narrowly defeated him in 2012.
“We said with one voice that working people who earned their retirement deserved to get it,” Guzzardi told a crowd of supporters in Chicago.
However, state Rep. Jaime Andrade, Jr. fended off four challengers, including attorney Nancy Schiavone, whose campaign was bankrolled by unions.
The other challenged incumbent, state Rep. Christian Mitchell, led Jhatayn “Jay” Travis, a community organizer who had hundreds of thousands of dollars in union support.
Democrats still stand a good chance of holding onto their veto-proof supermajorities in both legislative chambers this year, but the challenges could serve as a lesson to moderates in both parties facing difficult votes ahead.
Parkersburg teacher suspended over Facebook post
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — A Parkersburg South High School teacher has been suspended following a Facebook post he made regarding the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance student club.
Wood County Schools Superintendent Pat Law told the Parkersburg News and Sentinel that David Foggin was suspended on Tuesday for four days.
“It will be until spring break,” which is scheduled to begin Monday, Law said. “He’s not in the classroom this week.”
The Wood County Board of Education will decide after spring break whether the suspension is paid or unpaid, and whether to make any changes.
“That’s up to the board as to whether to approve it or not,” Law said.
The newspaper reported Monday that Foggin had posted an image on Facebook on Friday of a poster advertising the student club’s meetings, along with a comment, “Club meeting at PSHS!! Rally around them and show ur support. We are also considering a drunks-t totaller club, drugged/sober club, smokeless tobacco vs smokes club, street racing, and deer poaching clubs. Please donate and support us. Thank u!!! I think I hear the drag already zinging.”
A telephone listing for Foggin in the Parkersburg area couldn’t be found. He declined to comment about the post to the newspaper on Monday.
Law said the incident remains under investigation.
Wood County Board of Education President Tim Yeater said he wanted to ensure the school system conducted a thorough investigation.
“Our main concern here is our students and student rights,” Yeater told the newspaper, “but we also have a vested interest in our employee rights.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 21, 2014.
