Indiana House Derails 2014 Marriage Amendment By Voting To Change Its Language

[theHandpuppet]

Indiana House Derails 2014 Marriage Amendment By Voting To Change Its Language
By Zack Ford
on January 27, 2014

On Monday evening, the Indiana Republican-controlled House amended the language to House Joint Resolution 3 with a 52-43 vote, which will likely preven the state from sending a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to the ballot in 2014. The change struck the second sentence of the amendment, which would have banned recognition of any legal status for same-sex couples that is “identical or substantially similar” to marriage. Many felt this intruded too much on benefits for same-sex couples, which are vital to ensuring businesses and universities in the state can competitively hire.

If HJR 3 passes the legislature its new form, it cannot be sent to voters this year. Amendments to the Indiana State Constitution must pass in the same exact form in two consecutive legislative sessions before being sent to the ballot. HJR 3 was first passed in 2011, but it now becomes a new amendment, which — presuming the new form passes the House and then the Senate — must itself be approved in a second legislative session, meaning the earliest voters would see it on the ballot is probably 2016. By then, the U.S. Supreme Court may well have ruled on one of the other state cases, such as those that have already advanced in Nevada, Utah, and Oklahoma, and the amendment could be moot.

There is one way that the amendment could still advance in its original form this year. If the House passes the new version of the amendment, the Senate could then restore the second sentence and pass it that way. The different versions of HJR 3 would then have to be resolved in conference between the two chambers. Any change to the final conference version from what passed in 2011 would prevent the bill from advancing to voters this year...

... Both state and federal conservative groups have been championing HJR 3, but this development means there’s nothing for them to champion in Indiana this year. A rally was scheduled for Tuesday featuring the National Organization for Marriage’s Brian Brown and homophobic activist Robert Oscar Lopez, but it’s unclear if that rally will proceed as planned. The Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg, who believes homosexuality should be criminalized and that gay people should be deported, was also in Indiana Monday to support the amendment. In a post on FRC Action’s Cloakroom blog, Sprigg explains why he believes the amendment is important: MORE

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