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Thursday, January 27, 2005

Ind. Law - Senate likely to OK gay-marriage ban, panel's leader says

"Senate likely to OK gay-marriage ban, panel's leader says" is the headline to this report today in the Indianapolis Star:

The Senate Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters Committee is likely to take up a joint resolution Feb. 9 that could lead to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the panel's chairman said Wednesday. The measure, authored by Sens. Brandt Hershman, R-Wheatfield, and Allie Craycraft, D-Selma, states that in Indiana, marriage will consist solely of the union between a man and a woman.

If the General Assembly passes Senate Joint Resolution 7 this year, a separately elected legislature would have to pass an identical measure before the proposed change could appear on the statewide ballot.

"I expect that to pass committee and the Senate, since it passed 42-7 last year in a very strong bipartisan vote," the committee's chairman, Sen. David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said. "We will give it a fair hearing, probably an hour for each side, most likely in the Senate chamber."

Long said the measure is needed even though the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled last week that the Indiana Constitution includes no right for same-sex couples to marry. "What you have to remember is courts can change their minds. What one court says today may change tomorrow," Long said. "I think that will make a rock-solid statement about where Indiana stands on the institution of marriage. Only that statement would be able to stand the test of time."

Here is the link to SJR 007. The measure would add a new Section 38 to Article 1, Bill of Rights, of the Indiana Constitution, to read:
(a) Marriage in Indiana consists only of the union of one (1) man and one (1) woman.

(b) Neither this Constitution nor any other Indiana law may be construed to confer marital status or any legal incidents of marriage upon unmarried couples or groups. [emphasis added]
See also this Nov. 12, 2004 ILB entry on the legal issues raised by the passage of similar constitutional amendments by Kentucky and Ohio last November.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 27, 2005 01:31 PM
Posted to Indiana Law