D.C. court asked to suspend gay marriage recognition law
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
June 18, 2009
Opponents of a new D.C. gay marriage recognition law acknowledged Thursday that their only hope for putting the matter before voters was for a judge to prevent the statute, at least temporarily, from taking effect.
The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics has already denied calling a referendum on a law recognizing gay marriages performed in other jurisdictions, as it would violate the city’s Human Rights Act. Referendum supporters, led by Bishop Harry Jackson of Beltsville’s Hope Christian Church, filed their appeal Wednesday.
Once the recognition law takes effect July 6, the referendum will be off the table.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Retchin was asked to postpone the law’s effective date, which would then give referendum backers time to make their case that the issue belongs on the ballot.
Even if Retchin had ruled Thursday that the referendum could go forward, the proponents would have had only a day or two to collect the signatures of nearly 21,000 registered voters ahead of the July 6 deadline.
“You’re out of time already if the court doesn’t stay the legislation,” Retchin told the proponents’ counsel, Brian Raum of the Alliance Defense Fund. “I don’t know if the court has the power to stay the legislation.”
Raum responded: “Effectively.”
But no one in the courtroom could cite any precedent where a Superior Court judge blocked duly adopted legislation from becoming D.C. law. A series of written arguments on the question will be filed over the next week by both sides.
After the procedural hearing at the Moultrie Courthouse, Raum contended that the court had the equitable authority to suspend a statute. Elections board General Counsel Kenneth McGhie disagreed, but he declined to explain further.
“Unless the clock is stopped, the people will effectively be deprived of their right to vote on this issue,” Raum said.
The D.C. government, which operates separately from the Board of Elections and Ethics, has intervened in the case. The Gertrude Stein Club, the District’s largest gay rights group, has also motioned to intervene, but Raum is opposing that request.
Retchin has ruled on referendums before. In 2006 she held that a ballot question on video lottery terminals could go forward, only to have her decision overturned on appeal.
