The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a lower-court ruling June 30 that upheld the state’s ban on same-sex marriages and civil unions, according to Courthouse News Service.
In 2006, voters supported a proposed constitutional amendment that defined marriage solely as being between one man and one woman. The following year, William McConkey filed a lawsuit claiming that the two sentences of the marriage amendment constituted two amendments, not one, and that because voters were not able to vote for or against each sentence, the marriage amendment was not validly adopted, according to Leagle.com. (The amendment reads, “Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.”)
In its ruling, Justice Michael Gableman stated, “We hold that Article XIII, Section 13 of the Wisconsin Constitution—the marriage amendment—was adopted in conformity with the separate amendment rule in Article XII, Section 1 of the Wisconsin Constitution, which mandates that voters must be able to vote separately on separate amendments. Both sentences of the marriage amendment relate to marriage and tend to effect or carry out the same general purpose of preserving the legal status of marriage in Wisconsin as between only one man and one woman.”