GA. MARRIAGE AMENDMENT CHALLENGED: From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The fight over the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage returned to court Tuesday despite the widespread support it received from Georgia voters last week.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, the Atlanta law firm of Alston and Bird, and Lambda Legal, a national organization that represents gays and lesbians, filed in Fulton County Superior Court a lawsuit claiming that the amendment is unconstitutional.

The legal team battling the amendment sued shortly after Secretary of State Cathy Cox certified last week's election results. In that balloting, 78 percent of Georgia voters approved the amendment defining marriage as "only the union of man and woman." Jack Senterfitt, a Lambda Legal lawyer working on the case, said his team was not daunted by the broad voter support for the measure. A majority of Georgia voters supported the amendment in every one of the state's 159 counties. ...

The lawsuit focuses on the language of the amendment, not whether gay couples should be allowed to marry.

It claims that the amendment violates the Georgia Constitution's single-subject rule by pertaining to multiple issues. In addition to marriage, the amendment would affect civil unions and the ability of Georgia's courts to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, the attorneys argue.

The lawyers also contend that the wording of the ballot question that voters saw on Election Day was misleading because it asked only about marriage and not about the other issues the amendment might affect.

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The complaint is here (PDF).

posted by Eve at 7:19 PM VOTE

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