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Gov. Chris Gregoire is surrounded by children and adults as she signs the “everything but marriage” law Monday in Seattle. The law will take effect at the end of July and expands on previous domestic partnership laws, adding partnerships to all remaining areas of state law that deal with married couples. The benefits range from labor and employment rights to pensions and other public employee benefits. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Question: Do you think the Idaho Legislature will ever pass a bill like this one?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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ShoshoneConservative on May 18 at 3:36 p.m.
I am not sure if the Idaho legislature could, even if it wanted to. I believe (though it’s been a while since I read it), that the Marriage Amendment is phrased in such a way so as to prohibit granting same-sex couples marriage-like benefits, i.e., civil unions, domestic partnerships, etc. As such, it would have to be over-turned as a violation of the Federal Constitution if the leglislature wanted to enact such a law.
In any event, I think, even without the marriage amendment, it is highly unlikely the Idaho Legislature would pass a bill like this one.