A Wisconsin judge
is allowing a challenge to the state's constitutional
amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions.
A Wisconsin judge
is allowing a legal challenge to the state's
constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil
unions. The amendment, approved by 59% of Wisconsin
voters in 2006, is being contested by William
McConkey, a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh political
science instructor, according to the Capital Times in
Madison.
The challenge is
based on the referendum vote. McConkey claims that the
ballot posed two questions at once, which violates a section
of the state constitution mandating that questions be
asked separately when amending the constitution.
The state
assistant attorney general filed to dismiss the suit on
grounds that the challenger is not directly affected
by the amendment. The Wisconsin Family Council filed a
friend-of-the-court brief to back the state's attempt
to dismiss. The group tried to get the amendment on the
ballot for three years before finally succeeding in November
2006, the Daily Cardinal (the University of
Wisconsin-Madison newspaper) reported.
McConkey said he
is straight and married with nine children and seven
grandchildren. An attorney arguing on his behalf said that
the proposed amendment violated the constitutional
requirements for referendum language because
voters had to endorse both civil unions and same-sex
marriage or neither -- there was no choice to endorse one
and not the other.
According to
Lambda Legal, the Wisconsin legislature blocked a bill in
2000 that would have allowed the state to not recognize
marriages that took place in another state. (The
Advocate)
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