This story hasn't gotten NEARLY enough attention. It spells MAJOR trouble for the anti-gay "marriage" people. Where is our side in pushing this? Their amendments are being used to defend wife-beaters. Now THAT'S a defense of traditional marriage alright. Ah for the days when a man could beat a woman with impunity...
Toledo Blade Editorial: The amendment strikes back
When it comes to Ohio’s new marriage amendment, we hate to say we told you so. But we’re going to do it anyway.
Before voters approved state Issue 1 on Nov. 2, this newspaper, as well as Governor Taft, the state’s two Republican U.S. senators, and its attorney general, warned that the constitutional amendment could have legal consequences beyond the simple ban on gay marriage its sponsors claimed.
Well, the amendment took effect Dec. 1 and sharp lawyers already have found devious ways to employ it, including a dangerous end run on domestic-violence statutes.
In two cases in Cleveland courts, the Cuyahoga County public defender’s office has asked that domestic-violence charges be dismissed, citing the amendment’s prohibition against any legal status for unmarried couples that approximates marriage. Ohio’s domestic-violence law, the public defender pointed out, applies to a “person living as a spouse.”
