Appeals court rejects suit by anti-gay marriage gro

Appeals court rejects suit by anti-gay marriage group
By Gary Barlow
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press
September 13, 2006


A three-judge federal court panel Sept. 6 threw out an anti-gay group’s suit against Illinois election officials, almost certainly ending, for this year, the group’s effort to put an advisory referendum against equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians on the ballot.

Illinois law requires about 283,000 valid voter signatures to put a statewide referendum on the ballot. The anti-gay group, Protect Marriage Illinois, wanted to put its referendum, which would have urged Illinois legislators to pass a constitutional amendment banning gays and lesbians from marrying, on the November ballot.

PMI gathered more than 347,000 signatures on petitions supporting the referendum effort, but the Illinois State Board of Elections conducted a random sample of PMI’s signatures and found so many errors and invalid signatures that it declared the petitions invalid.

PMI filed suit in U.S. District Court in Chicago, arguing that Illinois’ requirements for referendums were too onerous and violated the group’s free speech rights. But on Aug. 2, Judge Elaine Bucklo dismissed PMI’s suit. Last week’s Court of Appeals ruling upheld Bucklo’s decision.

“A state no more has a federal constitutional obligation to permit advisory questions on its ballot than it has to permit them to be painted on the walls of the state capitol,” Judge Richard Posner wrote in the appeals court’s opinion. “The ballot is not a traditional public forum for the expression of ideas and opinions, like streets or parks, to which reasonable access must be given to people who want to engage in political and other protected expression.”

Stating that the primary purpose of the ballot is to list candidates for office, Posner noted that no other states even permit advisory referendums.

“If a state can thus ban advisory questions from the ballot altogether, it can impose requirements designed to avoid ballot clutter,” Posner ruled.

Judges Michael Kanne and Daniel Manion concurred with Posner’s opinion.

PMI could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but opponents of the referendum effort believe that’s unlikely since the anti-gay group would have virtually no chance of winning or even persuading the justices to hear their case.

“It is essentially done,” said Lambda Legal attorney Jim Madigan. “The law is quite clearly against them.”

Lambda has been part of a coalition of groups, including Equality Illinois, PFLAG, the ACLU-Illinois and the Gay Liberation Network, who joined together under the Fair Illinois Committee banner to fight PMI’s referendum.

Following Bucklo’s ruling in August, PMI leaders railed against her, criticizing her as a liberal, Clinton-appointed judge. But Madigan noted that Posner, Kanne and Manion are all Reagan appointees.

“Strongly worded as (the ruling) was, it’s even better that all of the judges signed on to it,” Madigan said.

Equality’s Rick Garcia was jubilant after the ruling.

“Every step of the way, PMI has lost,” Garcia said. “There’s never been a time that they had a probability of winning. ÉI think it’s great. Let them go pick on somebody else.”

PMI has 90 days to appeal the ruling.