Article reprinted in its entirety due to brevity.
Free Press Staff Report • April 7, 2009
MONTPELIER — Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.
The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.
The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law. It's now the fourth state to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.
The Vermont Senate voted earlier this morning to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of the same-sex marriage legislation. The vote passed, 23-5.
The true jubilation didn't start until everyone gathered downstairs where they congratulated legislative leaders who championed the cause. Sonny Audette (D-South Burlington) who was on the fence last night did not show up for the vote. Three Democrats who voted against the bill voted for the override.
Gov. Jim Douglas, who vetoed legislation, said, "I prepared myself for this outcome and predicted it. The outcome was not unexpected."
He just sounds so mournful, doesn't he? His loins were firmly girded.
No doubt there will be a movement to amend the Vermont constitution to overturn this result. However, amending the Vermont constitution sounds even more unlikely than amending Iowa's constitution. Vermont has no voter initiative process, so attempts to overturn this ruling will need to either go through the courts -- and since their rulings required the creation of the civil unions process, it seems unlikely that they'd overturn it -- or has to be initiated by the legislature itself. And the process for that is quite involved.
...Proposals of amendment can be initiated every four years by the senate. A proposal must be approved by two/thirds of the senate (20 votes) before being sent to the house, where a majority vote is required for passage. Successful proposals are taken up by the succeeding legislature, the intervening election allowing voters an opportunity to instruct their legislators on whether to support any amendments. The proposal must then survive majority votes of the senate and house, before being placed before the voters for ratification....
So, assuming the amendment made it out of the legislature -- which seems highly unlikely at the moment -- the voters would get a chance to "instruct their legislators" ... but the legislators do not seem to be bound to follow said instruction. So it looks like nondiscriminatory marriage in Vermont may actually stick around a while.
Posted by iain at April 07, 2009 11:22 AM
