Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal

« 5-day Washington County Fair opens gates / Photo | Today | Update: Excavator tips at station demolition site / Photo »

August 15, 2007

ACLU wants governor to withdraw brief on gay divorce

The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union announced today it's called on Governor Carcieri to withdraw a legal brief submitted for a state Supreme Court case that could decide if a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts could divorce in Rhode Island.

The ACLU said it and three other organizations sent a letter to the governor because the "strong opposition to same-sex marriage contained in the governor's brief -- written by an out-of-state private attorney -- has been widely noted."

In a news release, the ACLU specifically says it's focusing on the governor's "inexplicable attack" on Rhode Island's "no-fault divorce laws." The ACLU quotes the brief asserting that no-fault divorce has resulted in "more children ill equipped to cope in a world already fraught with problems" and even that it's led women to take "steps to protect their human capital by entering the work force and pursuing education."

In response to that, the ACLU news release said it knows there are "some people out there who long for a return to the 'idyllic' 1950s when women knew their place was in the kitchen, but we do not expect to hear echoes of it emanating from a gubernatorial court brief."

If the brief is not withdrawn, the ACLU says, then "we request that [the governor] formally clarify your position on these issues."

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with Journal archival reports

Today's announcement follows one issued by the state Democratic Party chairman last week. The chairman, William Lynch, announced he was pursuing under the Freedom of Information Act whether taxpayers have paid for the out-of-state lawyer's services. Lynch characterized the lawyer, James Bopp Jr., as "right wing," saying he "has made a living representing the narrow-minded ideology of people like Tom DeLay."

Lynch -- the brother of state Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, who filed a brief with the court on gay divorce that comes to different conclusions than the governor's -- asserted that the brief filed for the governor pushed the governor's personal views and should therefore have been paid for with personal money.

Carcieri is a Catholic and Republican. The Democrat Lynch brothers, who hail from an Irish-Catholic family, have a sister who married a woman in Massachusetts

Carcieri's office signed a $15,000 contract with Indiana lawyer Bopp to submit a friend-of-the-court brief by a court deadline.

Last week, a spokesman for the governor said that Bopp was one of at least two nationally known lawyers who contacted the governor's office about writing the brief. Bopp was picked for the no-bid contract and spent about two weeks writing the brief.

Spokesman Michael Maynard said last week the governor “wanted to get someone who had expertise on this issue who could file a brief that would get to the core of the issue. That was Bopp." Maynard said that the office found Bopp's rate was the best available.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 1:44 PM | Permalink

Comments

All this reporting about the various briefs by the venerable Providence Journal -- yet no posting of links to the briefs online? Come on, projo.com! Where's the beef?

Len K. | August 15, 2007 4:47 PM link

The fear. Marriage won't mean the same thing. If every gay couple in RI got married and I went to a divorce hearing saying, it aint what it was, I would still loose half of everything.
Marriage should be taken more seriously. Have a longer application period, require classes, no more than one marriage per five years. But make it the same for everyone. My wife and I don't care who marries, just that they take it seriously. If someone's church does not want to host any couple, so be it. Mine would host, if they chose a church setting.
Dear Governor, seperation of church and state. Keep your church's politics out of my bedroom.
David

David Cunningham | August 15, 2007 8:23 PM link

On one hand the Governor calls for budget cuts for programs meant for the states lowest income residents. The Gov also said he wants to cut over a thousand state employees but pays an out-of-state lawyer on a no-bid contract for 15 thousand dollar opinion that no one but regressive-minded obstructionists embrace. To claim that they needed a lawyer with 'expertise' means to me that the lawyer would need to be a divorced lesbian. Not a shill for the failing religious right.
The world did not seem to end after our neighbor state allowed all people to marry. To expect all of those marriages to complete the 'death - do - us part' clause is simple minded. I would guess that same sex marriages have a better divorce ratio than straight marriage.
The State of Rhode Island and the rest of the country need to realize that as each generation passes to the next younger lawmaking generation there will be equal rights for all Americans to marry.
Being the crab that pulls the others back from trying to get out of the pot is not a good look Gov and a sad legacy to leave your children.

l steel | August 15, 2007 10:17 PM link

August 15, 2007

ACLU wants governor to withdraw brief on gay divorce

Comments

Post a comment