Pa Gay Marriage Debate
PA State Senator Daylin Leach invited NOM's Maggie Gallagher to a debate on gay marriage in Harrisburg. It happened tonight, and I liveblogged it on Facebook. (Note: Senator Leach is introducing a bill to allow gay marriage in PA.)
( Here's the transcript )
( Here's the transcript )
>> So it doesn't go out to an everybody vote like a proposition,
>> amendment, or ballot question but is just for those people you
>> elected to vote on.
Well, it does go to the electorate eventually, but that's not the point in the process we were at. Here's PA's constitutional amendment process:
1. Amendment passed by legislature through normal legislative process.
2. After the next election (so people can change their legislative body), amendment passed by consecutive legislature through normal legislative process.
3. People allowed to vote on amendment in referendum.
The normal legislative process involves a bill being moved forward by a committee. sb707 did not survive the committee process. This is constitutional and ok.
The questioner used a phrase along the lines of: "denied the people their constitutional right to vote on the amendment". There is no constitutional right to vote on an amendment that hasn't been passed by two consecutive legislatures. Leach was also adding the point that there is not a constitutional right to amendments that affect civil rights, and as he believes that marriage is a civil right, he's arguing additionally that there was no constitutional right to vote on this amendment at all.
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