[lavender] Fwd: [usgp-dx] Green Mayor West will face trial for Gay Marriage

[Owen Broadhurst]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Green Party-CT <greenpartyct at yahoo.com>
Date: May 27, 2005 5:10 PM
Subject: [usgp-dx] Green Mayor West will face trial for Gay Marriage
To: NG GREENS <natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org>


N.Y. Court Rules Mayor Will Face Trial
By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press WriterFri May 27, 1:27 PM ET



The village mayor who challenged New York law by attempting to marry
gay couples last year will face trial, the state's highest court ruled
Friday.

Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, the high court there rejected a Roman
Catholic activist's bid to halt gay marriages in that state until
after voters have weighed in on a constitutional ban.

New Paltz, N.Y., Mayor Jason West faces 24 misdemeanor counts of
violating the state's domestic relations law by marrying couples
without licenses in late February 2004. He faces fines and up to a
year in jail if convicted.

West's actions came amid a flurry of efforts in various states to wed
gay couples after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom allowed gay couples
there to marry in February 2004. Those efforts have largely been put
on hold by the courts.

West has maintained he was upholding the gay couples' constitutional
rights to equal protection — and thus his oath of office — by allowing
them to wed in the Hudson Valley college town in late February 2004.

But top state officials, including Gov. George Pataki and Attorney
General Eliot Spitzer, have said same-sex ceremonies violate state
law.

"Mayor West stood up for the constitutional rights of people being
treated unfairly and unconstitutionally," said West's attorney, E.
Joshua Rosenkranz. "If he is wrong about that judgment, of course he
will stand trial and we'll pay whatever penalty and he's prepared to
do so."

Before making its decision, the state Court of Appeals refused West's
request to first hear arguments on the constitutionality of the
state's gay marriage ban. West had argued that the high court should
take up the issue now because the case was unique, novel and critical
to the state.

But Assistant District Attorney Joan Lamb argued that other cases
brought by gay couples are already wending through the court system,
and those couples have better legal status to contest the law because
it affects their own rights, while West was acting as a public
official.

In Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court on Friday rejected a
lawsuit by C. Joseph Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action
League, to halt gay marriages in the state until the voters could
decide on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The
vote could happen in November 2006 at the earliest.

The Supreme Judicial Court, the state's highest court, became the
first to authorize same-sex weddings with its landmark November 2003
ruling. The ruling took effect in May 2004.

Doyle had appealed to the full court after a single justice dismissed
his claim last year. Justice Roderick Ireland said same-sex couples
shouldn't be denied the right to marry based on the possibility that
voters would approve the amendment.

"The single justice was correct and well within his discretion" in
denying Doyle's request, the high court wrote Friday.







Copyright (c) 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The
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