Straight Marriage Banned In Texas?

[Wolffield]

The banning of gay marriage in Texas has made all marriages illegal, according to attorney general candidate. :(

Houston attorney Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who hopes to be elected attorney general, says the clause outlawing gay marriage was not written properly.

The clause reads: “This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognise any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”
Radnofsky says: “You do not have to have a fancy law degree to read this and understand what it plainly says."

The amendment was made by the Texas Legislature in 2005. Voters overwhelmingly approved it.

Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for current attorney general Greg Abbott, who approved the wording, dismissed her claims.

“The Texas constitution and the marriage statute are entirely constitutional," he said.

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4051/cryo.jpg

[SwordoftheVistula]

Obviously means 'any other', that they can't create or recognize things such as 'civil unions' which are similar/identitical to marriage. It doesn't say it bans marriages, only 'counterfeit' ones.

[Wulfhere]

This is amusing. It boils down to this, of course - if a thing is "identical" to something, is it actually that thing? In this case, we're not talking about mere philosophy, but something that can be tested in a court of law. What is needed is some eccentric Dallas oil millionaire to mount a test case, so as to determine whether all marriages since 2005 have been illegal.

[Lahtari]

The clause reads: “This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognise any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”
Radnofsky says: “You do not have to have a fancy law degree to read this and understand what it plainly says."

There is something called 'the letter of the law' (in English???) and then there's something called 'the spirit of the law'. The latter means that the lawmaker can assume that the law is not read and executed by a computer, blindly and exactly following simple orders, or like the Devil reading the bible, but by a human judge or lawyer who can be excepted to understand the intention of the lawmaker to a reasonable extent. This gives the legal system a useful amount of flexibility, but can also be harmful if the executers fail to understand or are deliberately unwilling to follow the lawmaker's intentions.

This law should indeed have been worded better (in accordance with the Murphy's Law), but if anyone manages to win a case with her arguments there's obviously something gone bad with the legal system. :D

[Cato]

Radnofsky, another political Jew agitator pwahaha.