At 2:17 pm today, March 24, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that there will be no constitutional convention. At issue was whether 45,000 blank ballots counted as "no" in the Nov. 1996 General Election. This removes a major avenue for changing Hawaii's constitution to overturn the successful court case Baehr v. Miike.
Same-gender marriage advocates won every issue in the September trial (see Circuit Court Judge Kevin Chang's Dec. 3 ruling). Our Dec. 3 victory has been appealed by the State of Hawaii to Hawaii's Supreme Court. The state will file the bulk of its appeal by April 29.
In the meantime, fearing defeat in Hawaii's Supreme Court, opponents
of same gender marriage are trying to change Hawaii's constitution (the
current constitution is the basis for our court victories). They
now have only one path left: get the legislature
to put a constitutional amendment to the vote of the people in the
November 1998 election.
Tom Ramsey
President, Friends of h.e.r.m.p
Ex-Officio, Marriage Project - Hawaii Steering Committee