Oregon Ping
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.
It's been a busy week, sorry I'm so late with this ping.
Posted on 11/19/2004 4:21:23 PM PST by the_gospel_of_thomas
PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) - After Oregonians voted to ban same-sex marriages earlier this month, a gay rights advocate has given up its fight to take its case to the state's supreme court, activists said on Friday.
The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) (ACLU) will instead argue for a legal civil unions between same-sex couples giving them the same rights and benefits as married couples.
"This changes our case in only one way. We are no longer seeking marriage," said Ken Choe, a New York attorney with the ACLU who will argue the Oregon case. "But we do believe that the Oregon Constitution requires equality with respect to the protections that come with marriage."
Also at issue is the fate of 3,000 same-sex couple who were married in Portland's Multnomah County after county commissioners started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in March before halting the practice amid a flurry of lawsuits nationwide both for an against same-sex marriages.
The constitutional amendment to Oregon's state constitution, known as Measure 36, that passed earlier this month "in no way affects those 3,000 marriages. Measure 36 cannot retroactively undo those marriages," Choe said.
Oregon's Defense of Marriage Coalition, which pushed for Measure 36's passage, disagrees. "The licenses are not valid because they were issued in contradiction of the law," Tim Nashif, a spokesman for the Coalition said.
The Coalition contends that as a result of the gay marriage ban "the suit should be dismissed," Nashif said.
Oregon was one of 11 states that voted in the Nov. 2 election to prohibit gay marriage. Some political pundits have argued that the push for gay marriage was too much too soon for many Americans and the initiatives on the 11 state ballots brought out more conservative voters, leading to President Bush (news - web sites)'s reelection.
Oregon went against that trend. About 57 percent of voters agreed to ban gay marriage, but Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) won in Oregon.
"Whether it is called civil unions or it is called domestic partnerships or whether it is called something else," Choe said, the arrangements must "contain the full range of legal protections that married couples enjoy."
Vermont pioneered the civil union in 2000. It entitles same sex couples to "all the same benefits, protections and responsibilities" as marriage, according to the state.
The Oregon Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on December 15.
Yeah, right. The ACLU has given up on gay marriage only temporarily. They'll soon pick up the cause after enough years have passed.
If I could have one wish granted, it would be the complete and utter elimination of the ACLU. Starting today.
I would wish for your wish to be granted LOL
I often said if I ever win the lottery, a big win, I would fund the best and largest anti aclu programs I could find.
This shows everyone that unless their amendments include a ban on civil unions, they will get court ordered gay marriage by another name.
If I could have one wish granted, it would be the complete and utter elimination of the ACLU. Starting today
====
Queers surely are Queer... but the ACLU is Communist, Treacherous and Treasonous !!!
Association
of
Communist
Lackeys
by and for the
UnAmerican
?
They are living to fight another day. Gays in civil unions shouldn't be allowed to adopt or be foster parents.
.
Oregon Ping
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.
It's been a busy week, sorry I'm so late with this ping.
But, if we had done that, they would have pulled a Louisiana on us, and sued to overturn it on the basis of it not covering a "single subject."
We have to pass a separate civil union ban, but it'd be hard to pass, unfortunately.
Well I sympathize, but really, what is the difference between a "marriage" and a "civil union" other than the name? It's just a word game to get what they want even with the definition of marriage being firmly established in state constitutions.
That means "values voters" have been footing the bill for the ACLU's launching a juggernaut to remove Ten Commandments images, Christmas creches and Christmas carols, taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and because they claim they have a civil right not to see the Ten Commandments, a civil right not to hear the word “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, not to see a creche of the Baby Jesus, not to hear Christmas carols. The ACLU has collected a huge amount of our tax dollars in this left-handed fundraiser for the ACLU.
FReepers can silence the ACLU with a bit of activism. We need to insist our Congressmen repeal this abusive law that allows the ACLU to get rich on harassing Christian America. Congress must repeal laws enabling the ACLU's Christian-hating activities. Cut off the ACLU's funds and watch them disappear. Here's what we can do.
The IRS should determine whether the ACLU is properly accounting for all its tax-funded activities, whether it is inflating legal costs, and whether it is using tax dollars for the purposes stated. We need to know whether the ACLU is engaged in Enron-style accounting and spending practices.
REFERENCE SOURCE FOR ARGUING REPEAL TO CONGRESS
Apparently, when Congress contemplated the fee-shifting bill three decades ago, it never conceived that 42 U.S.C. §1988 would be used to secure fees in esoteric battles over the meaning of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
The statute gives a court "discretion" to award attorneys' fees to the prevailing party in civil rights cases.
Study of the legislative history of the statute reveals that Congress intended this statute to apply to civil rights abuses, including certain race and sex discrimination cases, but not to arguments about whether Judge Roy Moore is allowed to display the Ten Commandments in the Alabama courthouse.
During the deliberations on the bill, the Senate penned that "in many cases arising under our civil rights laws, the citizen who must sue to enforce the law has little or no money with which to hire a lawyer."[6] In the recent First Amendment lawsuits filed by the ACLU, the tables are turned.
Small school districts and municipalities can either defend lawsuits and risk paying the ACLU's attorneys' fees if they lose, or they can voluntarily submit to the ACLU's view of the Constitution.
Even if lawsuits over the establishment clause somehow fall within 42 U.S.C. §1988, the statute empowers courts with nothing more than "discretion" to award fees.
In these cases, one would expect courts to withhold awarding fees. Since this is not happening, Congress must take immediate action to clarify 42 U.S.C. §1988 to explicitly exclude lawsuits related to the acknowledgement of God.
Thanks for your ping and the link to the other thread.
Ken Choe is the ACLU's point it re pushing for the Gay agenda.
The closed door sessions with ACLU judges and district attorney's or state AG's is done all the time at the local level to the federal court level.
Below is the Yahoo Search, which shows the activity of Ken Choe, poster it for Gay Agenda pusher for the ACLU.
Yeah, riiiiiiight!!
We should have waited a few years until the moral fiber of America had degenerated a little more. It would have been easier then. (/sarc.)
Actually the current elites of the ACLU is largely composed of homosexuals and pro Islamofascist elitist fascists. Below is their bio/description of their current leader, the out in our face gay, Anthony D. Romero:
Anthony D. Romero took the helm of the American Civil Liberties Union in September 2001, a week before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The air in lower Manhattan, where the nation's preeminent civil-liberties organization is headquartered, was still thick with smoke when the administration began pressuring Congress to remove checks and balances on law-enforcement.
It was not the first time that Americans were asked to trade away freedoms for increased security, and it would not be the last-but the ACLU stood its ground under Romero's leadership, steadfastly maintaining that it is possible to be both safe and free.
Romero, an attorney with a history of public-interest activism, also presided over the most successful membership drive in the ACLU's 82-year history. In his first year, 75,000 individuals became card-carrying members of the organization for the first time.
He is the ACLU's sixth executive director, and he is the first Latino and openly gay man to serve in that capacity. He came to the organization from the Ford Foundation's Human Rights and International Cooperation Program, which he led through a period of extraordinary growth, transforming it into Ford's largest and most dynamic grant-making unit. As director of that program, he channeled approximately $90 million in grants to civil-rights, human rights and peace projects in 2000, and launched groundbreaking initiatives in affirmative action, voting rights and redistricting, immigrants' rights, women's rights, reproductive freedom and lesbian/gay rights.
Homosexual Agenda Ping. Hmmm - So the homolawyer from NYC says that the 6000 people "married" in definance of the law are still married because measure 36 passed after their law breaking phony marriages?
This is more proof (if any is needed) that "civil unions" are just as bad as "marriage". Civil unions, domestic partnerships - they are all to be rejected.
The reasons homo-activists give for these demands are phony. Any legal protection or arrangements are available by simple methods. The only - I repeat - ONLY - reason homoactivists want any of the above is to further their goals of dominating the culture. There is no other reason.
Anyone know anything about the OR supreme court?
Let me and ItsOurTimeNow know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.
And their new head dude - last name Romero - is "gay".
Thanks for all the effort in fighting the good fight!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.