Posted on 02/23/2012 3:54:26 PM PST by Lmo56
The MD State Senate just passed the gay marriage bill 25-22.
The MD House of Delegates had previously passed the bill by one vote.
Guv O'Malley is gonna sign it.
The residents of the State are almost evenly split on the issue, but opponents are now going to gather signatures to put the issue on the ballot for November. If they win in November, the law will be null and void. Once the referendum drive starts, the law will be on hold until November.
A few things [I live in MD] ...
1. Prince Georges County and Baltimore City/County are heavily black and religious. The pastors warned the delegates if they voted for the bill, they will be defeated in November for re-election. Many of them are now clearing out their offices.
2. This is NOT a done deal - they only need about 50K worth of signatures to get the issue on the ballot. There is one fundamentalist "mega-church" in Prince Georges County that has 10K members.
3. The conservative religious factions are gonna be mobilized come November - to repeal the law and THROW OUT the legislators that voted FOR it ...
4. The 25-22 vote in the MD Senate shows HOW SCARED the Senators are - SAME measure PASSED last year in the Senate with 35 votes [but died in the House] ...
Another “i told you so” going out to those that scoffed at the need for a constitutional amendment.
Add Maryland to the list of states such as New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Iowa, Washington, Vermont, Conneticuitt and DC that will face Divine Retribution.
Another “i told you so” going out to those that scoffed at the need for a constitutional amendment.
the referendum will be thrown out by a leftist judge
it will not be overturned by the people
haven’t you learned how the game is played yet?
I hope everyone of them that voted for this gets thrown out. The Annapolis state house needs some new blood.
You’d better win or else you’ll end up like us in L.A....
WHERE EVERY intersection has a MASSIVE BILLBOARD on HIV/AIDS, normally depicted by 2 fags. You want your kids to see this garbage? Get that referendum going...
The Peoples’ Republic of Maryland is unfortunately chock full of moonbattery. Even if the signatures are collected, some marxist judge will rule that since the issue is a matter of human rights it cannot be brought before the electorate. There will be no turnover of note in Annapolis. Even the oddsmakers put Maryland in the 99% category for DaWon. In 2008 my precinct, just barely outside the gates of Andrews Ari force Base, went more than 90% for the poseur.
Is there any remote chance that with conservative rallying in MD to repeal this evil that this state could vote Republican for president in Nov. in your opinion?
In Massachusetts, the most signatures were gathered for any referendom for the repeal and the state legislature voted it down, it could not appear on the ballot. I hope Maryland has a different procedure. Good Luck.
Nope. Referendum is part of the MD State Constitution - either legislature-sponsored or petition-sponsored. They give the MD residents the final say on passage of bills.
In a legislature-sponsored bill, the House and the Seante pass a bill with specific language that states it will be placed on the ballot for MD residents FINAL say-so. They did this with Slot Machine Gambling.
In the case of gay marriage, they were SO AFRAID that the measure WOULD NOT pass referendum that they DID NOT INCLUDE the referendum language in the bill.
So, now what is left is the petiton-sponsored referendum. This allows residents to gather signatures and place the issue on the ballot IN SPITE OF THE FACT that the legislature tried to bamboozle them.
Since this is a legislative act and since the MD Court of Appeals HAS NOT declared that gays are being discriminated against, there is NO RECOURSE for a judge to rule otherwise - if the law is repealed at the ballot box.
If reversed at referendum, it will be as if it FAILED in the legislature.
This IS NOT like California, where the federal judges ruled Prop 8 unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. It is a FINAL vote on a legislative act.
BTW: The MD DREAM Act is ALREADY on the ballot [despite on-going court challenges] for November. It was passed the same way as the gay marriage act - WITHOUT specific language in the act putting the issue before the voters. THEREFORE, the signatures were collected and it WILL LIKELY be defeated in November.
Tell me where to sign.
California voters amended the State’s Constitution via initiative, limiting marriages to those between one man and one woman, a Judge ruled that majority rules is not legal. Ninth Court of Appeals just ruled California’s State Constitution unconstitutional.
Not over yet, awaiting appeals.
How does same sex marriage, propagate the human species? I think they can do without the wedlock contract.
HIGHLY unlikely - the last time MD went GOP was 1988 when G. H. W. Bush eked out a 50K victory over Dukakis, but you never know ...
IF the economy is STILL bad, gas prices are $4+, etc. Who knows? And even IF the GOP wins in 2012 - it WILL BE CLOSE [50K or less] ...
Reversal by referendum is as if the legislature DID NOT pass it.
Could this be taken to court? ABSOLUTELY. Would it pass constitutional muster at SCOTUS - NO.
The U.S. Constitution allows states to pass their own laws that are not specified in the federal document.
The supreme state law in MD is the MD State Constitution. It allows for referendum, which is the FINAL vote [by the People] on ALL state legislative acts passed by the MD legislature [except appropriations/revenue laws].
It'll probably be on-line.
They just did this with the MD DREAM Act. You go to the web site and put in your info. They check against MD voter records. Then they let you print out a form [with your voter info]. You sign it, and send via mail. All it costs is a postage stamp.
Years ago, Marylanders voted against a second bridge over the Chesapeake bay. Yet there it stands. More recently, Marylanders voted to NOT build a stadium for a baseball team. A judge declared it wasn’t subject to a vote. I agree with those who predict that upon a vote which decides there will be no homo marriage, the courts will decide the issue is not subject to referendum.
Not exactly. The 9th Circuit ruled it unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. They used as the reasoning Romer v. Evans, which was a challenge to Amendment 2 of the Colorado State Constitution.
Basically, Amendment 2 was passed by Colorado voters in a referendum. It prevented any city, town or county in the state from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to recognize gay and lesbian citizens as a protected class. SCOTUS declared that this was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. This ruling was correct.
HOWEVER, the 9th Circuit likely erred in extrapolating Romer v. Evans to include gay marriage.
Marriage has always been a religious institution, although in the 1800's, governments began to allow non-religious unions. These were called marriages for lack of a better word, although not sanctioned by any religion.
When this goes to SCOTUS, the justices will have to reconcile the U.S. Constitution with their faiths. There are 6 Catholics and 3 Jews on the Court. Depending on their orthodoxy, this could be a tipping point. A Latino justice with a deep abiding Catholic faith might rule against calling it a marriage. Same with any orthodox Jews on the Court ...
BOTH of your examples are appropriations/revenue bills, which I said in another post were EXEMPT from referendum ...
In May 1987, Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. instructed the Maryland Secretary of State to reject the opponents' petitions. He cited a constitutional exemption from referendum of appropriation measures necessary "for maintaining the state government."
Thanks for that.
Speaking of religion in the workplace, the influx of Mexicans or even infiltrators from further south are mostly devout Catholic. I don’t think the percentile of public opinion on man-woman marriage would change much in the State of California even as conservative Caucasians have become the minority.
Given the demographics of the area, I'm not surprised. I live 10 miles south and the line at my polling place in 2008 was so long I had to wait two and a half hours to vote. In 20 years of voting there I never had to wait more than 20 or 30 minutes.
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