Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Constitutional gay marriage ban passed in Missouri

Wax_off · 08-03-2004, 09:51 PM

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=5865252

O.K. Once again, this brings up constitutional issues that I don't quite understand. Does Missouri still have to recognize legal gay marriages from Massachusetts? The full faith and credit clause of the U.S. constitution would seem to say so. Can a state's constitutional amendment be ruled unconstitutional by the SCOTUS? How would one go about challenging a state constitutional ammendment? Would it be in state court or federal court? HuH?

Quote:

By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - Missouri voters on Tuesday made their state the first in the United States to approve a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage since a Massachusetts court decision last year set the stage for challenges to such unions.

In another key vote, Democratic Gov. Bob Holden was trailing in his party's gubernatorial primary. With 59 percent of the precincts reporting, state Auditor Claire McCaskill led Holden, 53 percent to 43 percent.

With same sex marriage a heated national issue, the primary drew a high turnout as voters overwhelmingly rallied behind the amendment, which states that "marriage shall exist only between a man and a woman."

With 59 percent of the precincts reporting, the amendment was supported by 73 percent of voters. The vote gives the amendment final approval.

Missouri, like 39 other states, already has a law that refuses to recognize same-sex marriages, but proponents of the constitutional ban said the amendment would prevent courts from following the lead of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, which ruled last year homosexuals had the right to wed.

"We want to make sure that marriage in Missouri stays as it has always been," said Kerry Messer, a conservative lobbyist and president of Missouri Family Network, which backed the amendment. "This was 110 percent a grass roots project from conservative traditional people across the state."

At least nine other states are planning similar votes on proposed constitutional amendments later this year, and four states already have similarly worded amendments.

Last month, the U.S. Senate blocked an effort led by the White House to amend the U.S. Constitution with a same-sex marriage ban, which several Democrats said was a blatant Republican effort to politicize the issue in an election year.

In Missouri, the same-sex marriage issue galvanized voters on both sides, leading to an estimated turnout of more than 40 percent of the state's 3.48 million voters, significantly more than primary turnouts in 1998, 2000 and 2002.

Both Holden and McCaskill oppose gay marriage but also opposed the amendment to the state's constitution as unnecessary, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

The winner of the gubernatorial vote will face Matt Blunt, Missouri's secretary of state, in the Nov. 2 general election. Blunt easily beat out five lesser-known candidates.

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