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As Md. Court Weighs Same-Sex Marriage, Plaintiffs Hear Echoes of Previous Fight
Charles Blackburn, standing, and his partner, Glen Dehn, are among nine couples suing Maryland for the right to marry. The case is scheduled to be heard by Maryland's highest court today.
(By Michael Robinson Chavez -- The Washington Post)
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"No appellate court in the country has declared a right to same-sex marriage to be fundamental," the state argues, pointing to recent decisions in New Jersey and California that emphasize the importance of state legislatures in helping to resolve the matter.
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in October that the state constitution guarantees same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples. However, a four-justice majority of the court left it to the state legislature to decide whether same-sex unions should be known as marriage or given some other name.
Also in October, a California appeals court ruled the state's ban on such marriages did not violate the state constitution and pointed to the state's domestic partnership law to counter claims of discrimination.
"The legislative forum is the most appropriate to address the issue of same-sex marriage and extension of benefit to same-sex families," attorneys for the state of Maryland argue in their brief.
Dwyer, an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage, agrees.
"The legislature in Maryland must deal with this issue," he said. Last year he unsuccessfully pushed the "Marriage Protection Act," which would amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriages and civil unions. He plans to take up the cause in the session that begins next month.
In 2001, Maryland passed a law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. And in 2005, the legislature created a life partnership for medical decision making and authorized an exemption from recordation and transfer taxes for domestic partners. Both bills were vetoed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) as undermining "the sanctity of traditional marriage."
That's why, said David Rocah, an ACLU lawyer for the plaintiffs, "You resort to the courts."
