The Ohio Supreme Court has dismissed a
legal challenge to a proposed constitutional amendment which would
legalize gay marriage.
The proposed amendment filed by Freedom
to Marry Ohio would repeal a constitutional amendment defining
marriage as a heterosexual union, which passed in 2004 with
overwhelming support, and replace it with one which would allow gay
marriage.
The Ohio Campaign to Protect Marriage,
the group behind the ban, had claimed that Ohio Attorney General Mike
DeWine should not have verified the proposed amendment's summary,
arguing that the petition summary is invalid because “it is not a
summary and is not a fair and truthful statement of the proposed
constitutional amendment.”
While DeWine opposes equal marriage
rights for gay couples, he asked the Republican-dominated court to
dismiss the case.
“When somebody wants to put something
on the ballot, it's not a question of whether Mike DeWine likes it or
doesn't like it,” he told WKSU.
“The question is: Is it a concise and accurate representation of
what that ballot initiative would do. And our lawyers looked at it
and said, 'Yes it was.'”
The group now must collect roughly
385,000 valid signatures from at least half of Ohio's 88 counties to
get the proposal on next year's ballot.
(Related: Signature
gathering begins in effort to repeal Ohio's gay marriage ban.)