COURT OK'S PHILA. SAME-SEX BENEFITS: From the Philadelphia Inquirer

The city acted within its powers six years ago when it extended benefits to the same-sex "life partners" of its employees, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

The Supreme Court overturned a two-year-old Commonwealth Court decision that held that the city had overstepped its authority in the 1998 ordinance that awarded same-sex couples employee benefits. In 2002, Commonwealth Court ruled that the way the city went about awarding the benefits amounted to an effort to amend the state's marriage law, something that only the state government is legally permitted to do.

In writing for the court, however, Justice Russell M. Nigro rejected Commonwealth Court's reasoning.

"While we acknowledge certain facial similarities between marriage and life partnership, we simply do not agree that they are sufficient to establish that the city has legislated in the area of marriage here," Nigro wrote.

William Devlin, the conservative activist who sued to stop the city's plan, vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. ...

The city's victory was not complete, however. The court disallowed parts of the statute that would have prohibited discrimination against couples who registered as life partners and given them an exemption from the city's real estate transfer tax.

Nigro wrote that the anti-discrimination provision was illegal because it allowed people from outside the city to register as life partners, something the city did not have the power to do. Besides, the justice wrote, the city's laws already ban discrimination based on sexual preference.

On the issue of the transfer tax, the justices said Pennsylvania law requires that taxes be assessed evenly within a class of people, and the city hadn't adequately justified giving a tax break to some same-sex couples but not others in long-term non-marital relationships, such as two cousins sharing a house and bank account.

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posted by Eve at 3:45 PM VOTE

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