ACLU Sues to Stop TN Anti-Gay Amendment -- 3 Democratic State Reps Join Lawsuit

Good Chance Hate Amendment Will NOT Appear on 2006 Ballot

The prospects of preventing the TN Hate Amendment from appearing on the ballot in 2006, look very promising. Thanks are due to the general incompetence of state leaders. This must be the silver lining I've been searching for in our dysfunctional state government.

State Reps. Beverly Marrero (D-Memphis), Tommie Brown (D-Chattanooga), Larry Turner (D-Memphis) and the Tennessee Equality Project have joined with the ACLU-TN in the lawsuit aimed at stopping the recently passed Hate Amendment from appearing on the ballot in 2006. The proposed constitutional amendment would prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriage.

According to the ACLU-TN website, the constitution requires that the text of amendments be published in state newspapers 6 months before the election, instead it was published 4 months and 12 days before November 2, 2004.

Reps. Marrero, Brown and Turner explain their position:

"When we took office, we swore that we would uphold the Tennessee Constitution. The Tennessee Constitution is what keeps us honest. When we no longer follow the rules, democracy is sacrificed. We are joining in this lawsuit because it's our duty to make sure that when we consider proposals to amend the State Constitution, we follow the rules. That didn't happen here."

Activist legislator and sponsor of the Hate Amendment, Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville) responded with the claim: ''the procedure was followed and the Secretary of State says it has been. Unfortunately, this group has decided to go against the will of the Senate, where they lost, the will of the House, where they lost, the court of public opinion, where they've lost, and now they're going to shop for some liberal judge who will overturn this.''

Yet, as Hedy Weinberg of the ACLU makes clear, there are rules in place even for activist legislators:

'The drafters of our state constitution put in place very specific safeguards to protect the constitution from being amended at the whim of politicians. It's shameful that the politicians who are so eager to prevent gay people from securing the protections of marriage have so little respect for our state constitution that they are willing to ignore these procedural safeguards.''

The right-wing Family (patriarchal) Policy Network strongly opposes the Hate Amendment because it does not ban civil unions "and all other marriage counterfeits." Perhaps they'd like to join in the lawsuit.