CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT UNLIKELY IN ILLINOIS: From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Despite the stunning success in Missouri of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the issue is unlikely to make its way onto the Illinois ballot any time soon, both supporters and opponents agree.

The deadline to get a similar amendment on November's ballot passed months ago. Because of state law, such an amendment couldn't go to the voters until the 2006 general election.

And as long as the Democratic leaders of the Senate and the House stay in power, nothing is likely to change, both sides say. ...

Three proposed amendments -- two in the House, one in the Senate -- failed to make it out of committee in the session that ended last month. So did a Senate proposal that would have changed state law, but not the constitution, to ban same-sex marriage. ...

Unlike Missouri, Illinois voters cannot petition to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

The only route for an amendment leads through the General Assembly, where both the House and Senate must pass the measure by a three-fifths majority at least six months before a general election. ...

Grunloh blamed the lack of interest in the amendment this year on the state's budget crisis and said that he expected the General Assembly to give the measure more attention next year.

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posted by Eve at 12:01 AM VOTE

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