Friday, April 03, 2009

More on Iowa

Cue dancing, singing, cheers, tears ... a unanimous supreme court decision for equality in the MIDWEST? Wow.

Apparently the ruling will take effect in 21 days. Also, as in Massachusetts, it is difficult to amend the Iowa Constitution. The process takes the approval of two sessions of the legislature and a vote of the people. Thus, this ruling cannot be immediately overturned by voters as folks did with Proposition 8 in California.

The office of the county attorney who defended the same-sex marriage ban has said that they will not ask for a rehearing. Meanwhile, legislative leaders in Iowa are praising the ruling and adding:
When all is said and done, we believe the only lasting question about today’s events will be why it took us so long.
Law Dork summarizes the ruling.

Law Dork updates the news and includes links to other takes on the ruling.

Here's the ruling.

4 comments:

Diane Silver said...

I just deleted a comment from "graggg" that linked to a malware site.

Tracy said...

Thanks for the heads-up.
I don't understand the motivation people have for malware.

Nancy Jane Moore said...

Unanimous? Unanimous!!! I saw the ruling (amidst a pile of work) this week, but only now did I stop and look closely. I just assumed it was a close vote, as all of the others have been, that some of the justices would have been concerned that people "weren't ready" for something like this. I guess I'll have to sit down and read the opinion. (Maybe not today. I read too many opinions in my day job.)

Diane Silver said...

Nancy, I didn't realize it was unanimous either, at first, but that fact is huge. And of course, like every other so-called "activist" ruling on marriage of recent times this one was written by a justice who was appointed by a Republican governor. And so it goes...