Friday, November 05, 2004

OK 2

I still can't find the whole suit, but I did get some details, including:
  • The attorney filing the suit for the two couples is civil-rights and employment litigation specialist Kay Bridger-Riley.
  • Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin, who had the civil union, are editors for the daily newspaper, the Tulsa World.
  • The action seeks to overturn the state constitutional amendment that passed in this week's election.
  • It also challenges the U.S. constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, particularly the provision that allows individual states to deny reciprocity by not recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
  • The civil suit claims that the four women are denied rights and privileges granted other Oklahoma residents and U.S. citizens, specifically that one couple cannot enter into a marriage and the other does not have recognition of their civil union.
  • Bridger-Riley said, "There are over 1,000 different rights and privileges and immunities that are denied to same-gender couples that are in the same situation as heterosexual couples."
  • The suit's defendants are Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson and Governor Brad Henry, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, and President George W. Bush.

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