Catholic Transcript Online

HARTFORD – The six Catholic bishops of Connecticut are urging voters to reject a landmark state Supreme Court recognition of same-sex marriage by voting on Nov. 4 for a constitutional convention that could ultimately negate the court’s ruling.

An Oct. 10 decision in the case of Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health called the 2005 civil union law discriminatory because it denied same-sex couples the right to marry. The plaintiffs in Kerrigan, eight same-sex couples who fought for the right to obtain marriage licenses, lost in 2006 in Superior Court. The Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision, reached 17 months after hearing the appeal, overturned the lower court’s decision.

Connecticut thus has joined California and Massachusetts in recognizing same-sex marriage, and same-sex couples were expected to start lining up to get marriage licenses beginning Oct. 28. Civil union, which gays and lesbians fought hard for and achieved three years ago, is not an acceptable substitute for marriage, the court decision states.

Immediately after the decision was announced, Connecticut’s bishops issued a statement calling it "a terribly regrettable exercise in judicial activism." They joined the Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC) in appealing to voters to vote "yes" on the Nov. 4 ballot question calling for a constitutional convention so that voters might have a more direct say in establishing public policy.

A question on every ballot in the state this Election Day will ask, "Shall there be a Constitutional Convention to amend or revise the Constitution of the State?" The question occurs on the ballot only once every 20 years.

By forcing a constitutional convention, the bishops and FIC hope to introduce a proposal for a direct initiative amendment, allowing voters to have a direct say in the lawmaking process. This so-called "right of initiative," they hope, could lead to a rejection by referendum of same-sex marriage in Connecticut.

"It appears our State Supreme Court has forgotten that courts should interpret laws and legislatures should make laws," the bishops said in their statement. "This ruling creates an inevitable conflict between people of faith, the natural law and the authority of the state."

In his majority opinion, Supreme Court Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote that because "marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody, the segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm."

Other justices in the majority opinion were Joette Katz, Flemming L. Norcott Jr. and Lubbie Harper. Justice Harper is an appellate judge sitting for Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers, who recused herself.

Justices David M. Borden, Peter T. Zarella and Christine S. Vertefeuille dissented.

Justice Borden wrote that "the state of social flux in this entire realm is simply too new and too untested for four members of this court to declare as an established social fact that civil unions are of lesser status than marriage in our state."

Justice Zarella, in his dissent, wrote, "The ancient definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman has its basis in biology, not bigotry. If the state no longer has an interest in the regulation of procreation, then that is a decision for the legislature or the people of the state and not this court."

Justice Vertefeuille agreed with Justice Borden’s dissent and wrote "that our marriage and civil union statutes satisfy the state constitution when analyzed under the traditional rational basis test."

On the day the court announced its ruling, FIC held a press conference at the Legislative Office Building. The bishops’ public policy group, Connecticut Catholic Conference (CCC), joined FIC there in calling for a "yes" vote on the ballot initiative.

"This decision is an outrage," said Peter Wolfgang, FIC’s executive director. But the voters of Connecticut were fortunate that the ruling came down before the elections, he later told The Catholic Transcript, because a "yes" vote on the ballot question could "take back self-government from the robed masters and restore traditional marriage."

Mr. Wolfgang said there is widespread support in the legislature and the executive branch for direct initiative. But if the ballot question fails, or if no such proposal comes out of a convention, he said, "it may very well mean we have lost democracy, marriage and, very soon thereafter, religious liberty."

The Catholic bishops, in their statement, wrote that they "will be calling on the Catholic people of our state to vote ‘Yes’ for a Constitutional Convention and the right of referendum on Election Day."

Michael C. Culhane, CCC’s executive director, said at the press conference, "The Church is concerned about this decision because it impacts a natural law."

He later told The Transcript that the ruling "clearly affects families as we understand them, and children as well, and that’s the main concern."

Mr. Wolfgang said at the press conference, "We knew this was going to happen. We expected it all along." That was why FIC organized a rally at the state Capitol on Sept. 28, which drew about 2,800 people, he said. "We rallied them in order to send a message to the Supreme Court to encourage them to release this decision before Election Day, not after, and to let the people decide," he said.

"We lobbied against civil unions three years ago here at the state Capitol," he said. "We told the legislators at the time that if you pass this civil union law, the other side will say it’s separate but unequal, [that] it’s discrimination. They will use it to go to the courts and argue to the courts in Connecticut to undemocratically force same-sex marriage on Connecticut. Those legislators did not listen to us, and everything that we predicted came true."

He added, "What the judges today have done is essentially usurp politics…. They did not interpret law today; they made law."

Carl A. Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, said in a statement e-mailed to Catholic News Service that what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White said 35 years ago about that court’s decision legalizing abortion, Roe v. Wade, also applied to the Connecticut decision.

"It is an exercise of ‘raw judicial power’ and we will respond today as we did then: with a national, long-term educational and public policy effort to overturn a decision incompatible with a Christian way of life and the common good of society," added Mr. Anderson, who was in Rome as an observer at the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible.

The Knights of Columbus is headquartered in Connecticut.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the decision would not be appealed and same-sex marriages could be performed in the state beginning Oct. 28, under an earlier order of the state Superior Court.

Connecticut would be the third U.S. state to permit same-sex marriage, after California and Massachusetts. Civil unions or domestic partnerships are allowed for same-sex couples in Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Oregon, Hawaii, Maine, Washington state and the District of Columbia.

Connecticut’s civil union law defined marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman. Federal law also recognizes marriage that way. Currently 26 states, including Oregon, have constitutional amendments defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. On Nov. 4 voters in three other states – California, Arizona and Florida – will consider proposed constitutional amendments defining marriage.

According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law in Los Angeles, Calif., an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007 American Community Survey showed that there were 9,546 same-sex couples in Connecticut, and 53 percent of them were female.

Almost 30 percent of same-sex couples in the state were raising an estimated 5,700 children, the analysis showed. The median household income of the state’s same-sex couples with children was $69,500, compared with $100,900 for couples who have children and are in traditional marriages.

The analysis showed that as of spring 2008, 1,855 same-sex couples in the state were in civil unions. In the first year following the state Supreme Court ruling, the Williams Institute expects about 3,000 same-sex couples to marry, based on the pattern set by Massachusetts. After three years, 4,700 same-sex couples are expected to take advantage of the ruling and get married, the analysis concluded.

Edward Conran, a parishioner at the Cathedral of St. Joseph, attended the Oct. 10 press conference and said he was "very disappointed" with the court ruling. He added, "We’ve done an awful lot of educating to the public, and as of now you feel a little discouraged."

Paul Martin, of TeenPact Leadership Schools, which teaches teens how to get involved in government, also attended the press conference. "I think it’s terrible," he said of the decision. He added, "It’s important that we make a difference, that we stand up and have our voices heard and not just let judges tell us what to do."