Wisconsin Supreme Court, via flickr user 'Photo Phiend'
The Wisconsin State Supreme Court announced this week their refusal to hear a case challenging the state’s domestic partnership registry that provides limited rights to couples. The folks at Wisconsin Family Action say they’ll continue their challenge back in the lower courts. This came on the same day that the court heard oral arguments challenging a voter referendum that amended the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. The lawsuit, McConkey v. Van Hollen, challenges the 2006 amendment on procedural grounds. Emilie Adams, HRC Staff Counsel, explains that case:
An attorney for the plaintiff, William McConkey, argued before the court that the referendum violated Article XII, Section I of the state’s Constitution, which requires that voters be allowed to vote for or against amendments separately. The referendum stated, “Shall section 13 of article XIII of the constitution be created to provide that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state and that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state?” McConkey believes that he and other voters were improperly denied the right to vote separately on whether or not to ban same-sex marriage and ban civil unions.
Wisconsin’s Assistant Attorney General Lewis Beilin defended the referendum, arguing that the two parts of the Amendment were closely related in purpose, and properly voted on as a single amendment. He also contended that being forced to split up referendums would create unnecessary difficulties for legislators attempting to change the Constitution.
Voters in eighteen other states have approved similar or identical amendments to their state Constitutions. In 2006, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that a 2004 amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions should stand, despite a similar challenge under the state’s single-subject law.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to rule by summer 2010.
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