BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has approved spending $1 million to defend the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
The committee endorsed a request by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter to transfer the money from the general fund to the Constitutional Defense Fund in anticipation of a legal fight, reported The Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
Idaho law recognizes only marriages between a man and a woman, and a 2006 voter-enacted constitutional amendment bans same-sex marriages.
Four couples in November filed a lawsuit challenging Idaho’s same-sex-marriage ban, arguing that the ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection and due process guarantees.
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Otter has argued in legal filings that states, not the federal government, have the right to define marriage. He contends that Idaho’s laws banning same-sex marriage are vital to the state’s goal of creating “stable, husband-wife unions for the benefit of their children.”
Federal judges have voided all or part of voter-approved bans on same-sex marriage in Utah, Oklahoma and Kentucky. Appeals are pending. On Wednesday, a federal judge struck down Texas’ ban on gay marriage but postponed action pending appeals in separate courts.
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Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, voted against allocating the money to defend the ban.
“I wasn’t interested in spending money on supporting a bad decision,” Ringo said. “It won’t hold up constitutionally.”
She said she’d rather see the $1 million go toward raising salaries for state employees and teachers.
Follow this case: Latta v. Otter.
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