by Matt Barr

Mawwaige is wot bwings us togevor today

Jurispundit notes a sad but unsurprising story from the Pain Dealer [sic]:

Ohio voters who approved a constitutional amendment last fall that denied legal recognition of unmarried and gay couples probably didn't envision the measure being successfully used as a defense in domestic violence cases.

But that became a reality Wednesday when Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Stuart Friedman ruled that the amendment, approved by voters as Issue 1, made part of the state's domestic violence law unconstitutional.

Friedman said that because Ohio's domestic violence law recognizes the relationship between an unmarried offender and victim as one 'approximating the significance or effect of marriage,' it represents a direct conflict with the amendment's prohibition against such recognition and is thus unenforceable.

JurisPundit is pained by "the apparent need by some to have the court bend the law from what it says to what it was 'intended' to mean. Rather than having judges pull wool over our eyes, the people of Ohio should do the responsible thing and have the law amended such that it comports with the amendment, if in fact that is their will."

What the people of Ohio should have done was not to overwhelmingly approve the idiotic amendment in the first place:

Only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this state and its political subdivisions. This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage.

I would like to see an amendment that says that the constitution may not be amended to restrict rights, only expand them. Barring that, I'd like not to be able to amend the constitution by majority vote. What's the point of having a constitution?

While I'm at it, what kind of idiotic domestic abuse law cares whether the victim and abuser are married, cohabitating, Sagittariuses, of Armenian descent, or anything else? Shouldn't someone getting hit end the inquiry?

This state is a mess.

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