Opponents of Minnesota's Marriage Protect Amendment sometimes claim there is "no threat" to marriage in their state, but this news proves once again how wrong they are:
On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court declined to review a case brought by three same-sex couples who claiming the Minnesota Defense of Marriage Act discriminates against them and against the son of one of the pairs.
The plaintiffs, who were all legally married elsewhere, filed suit [PDF] in 2010 in state court after Hennepin County refused to issue them marriage licenses. After a trial court judge dismissed the suit, the couples, who constitute the nonprofit Marry Me Minnesota, appealed. In January, the Court of Appeals overturned the dismissal ruling.
The Supreme Court’s decision not to review the case means the matter may now proceed to trial in Hennepin County. There’s very little chance it will be resolved before next fall’s amendment vote.
News that the case will move forward is not likely to spark universal celebration among advocates of same-sex marriage, some of whom fear it could be used to fuel arguments in favor of amending the state constitution to ban gay marriage. -- MinnPost
4 Comments
And the threat is what?
It's not that opponents of the MN marriage amendment are "wrong" about the threat to marriage. The fact is they're deliberating lying about it. I hope the good folks of MN are paying attention b/c they're one vote away from marriage corruption.
The sad part about this is the defendant-acounty clerk- didn't even appeal the merits of the case to the supreme court- which should be an easy case given that the state supreme court already rejected SSM claims before. The issue that the court decline to review was whether the State should be a party to the case. If the county took the time to appeal that, what not appeal the merits of the case too? Now it looks likely that the trial court will rule in favor of "SSM" absent the marriage amendment. Even if the amendment passes, I wonder if anyone will really try to defend it in court.
Unfortunately, this is why we need marriage amendments in EVERY state. SSM advocates marry in states that now allow it , and when they migrate to states where it is not allowed, they sue the state to get the same 'rights.'