A Hawaii lawmaker has filed a new
challenge to the state's newly approved gay marriage law, also known
as SB1.
Democratic Governor Neil Abercrombie
signed the bill into law on November 13, a day after it cleared the
Hawaii Legislature, and it takes effect on Monday, December 2.
(Related: Gay
couples prepare to marry in Hawaii.)
Hawaii Rep. Bob McDermott, a
Republican, claims that the law conflicts with a 1998 voter-approved
constitutional amendment. McDermott has argued that the amendment
only allows the Legislature to define marriage as a heterosexual
union.
“What the voters thought they were
voting – the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples
only,” said McDermott. “That word 'only' is key. That was
mailed to every voter in 1998.”
A judge has scheduled a hearing on the
motion for January 13, according to the Honolulu
Star-Advertiser.
The day after Abercrombie signed the
marriage bill, a judge rejected McDermott's assertions that the law
violated the Hawaii Constitution.
Circuit Court Judge Karl Sakamoto said
that the Legislature has an inherent right to define marriage through
the enactment of statutes, including allowing same-sex marriage as it
has done.
“After all the legal complexity of
the court's analysis, the court will conclude that same-sex marriage
in Hawaii is legal,” Sakamoto said in deciding the case.
“The court battle is not over,”
McDermott wrote on his Facebook page last week. “Please support
our effort to protect the 1998 decision of Hawaii's people in favor
of the protection of traditional marriage. Don't let Gov.
Abercrombie rewrite history and the meaning of the constitutional
amendment.”