Oregon voids same-sex marriage licenses

[DrunkMonkey 0]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/14/oregon.civilunions.ap/index.html

I'm not suprised they stopped issuing same-sex licenses, but nullfying them seems overly draconian. However this is a democracy. The people have spoken.

[mr2mk1g 10]

The problem is, because the ruling is that it was never legal to issue licenses, no licenses that were ever issued were legal... therefore no one was licensed at the time they were married... therefore no one was ever legally married... thus no one is currently married.

Under the constitutional circumstances it looks like the court really had no choice but to annul them if they were going to find in favor of the prejudiced bigots who brought the case before them.

[billvon 3,078]

>However this is a democracy.

Not entirely. Even if most people in the US wanted to bring back slavery, the "activist judges" that make up our judiciary would not allow it; there are some things (like the constitution) that cannot be voided by popular vote. That's pretty why we _have_ a judiciary.

It took a while to realize blacks and women have the same rights as everyone else. We will eventually get there with gays as well. It will just take a while to break down old prejudices.

[Ron 10]

According to this:

The court also said that long before that vote, state law had set the same limitations on marriages since Oregon became a state.

"Today, marriage in Oregon -- an institution once limited to opposite-sex couples only by statute -- now is so limited by the state Constitution as well," the court ruling said.



They had no choice but to strike it down...So as someone already pointed out...Since it was illegal they had no choice but to annul them.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[mdrejhon 8]

Well, there's always Canada, where I live!
Come on, move up here, the country's fine!
(Ducks to avoid pie being thrown at me.)

(Err... No, no... save that pie for my 100th jump. Maybe September. Starting PFF training in April, let's see how many jumps I get in this year. )

Seriously though, same-sex marriage is one of the things I'm happy to see happening in Canada, even though I do realize not everyone agrees with me. We just agree to disagree... change the subject and talk about something else.... like skydiving!

[britboynz 0]

Yep, same in NZ. Can't get 'married' over here, but from the end of April, same sex couples can have a 'Civil Union' (with exactly the same rights and responsibilities as a marriage).

A lot of EU countries have already gone down this road, and allowed same-sex unions. The sky didn't fall in over there, so why would it in the states?