ALLIANCE DEFENSE
FUND NEWS RELEASE
June 26, 2005 –
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT ADF MEDIA
RELATIONS: (480) 444-0020
Georgia Supreme Court to hear
appeal of trial judge’s decision that invalidated state constitutional
amendment
ATLANTA — The Alliance Defense Fund, the
Georgia Baptist Convention, and 14 state lawmakers filed a
friend-of-the-court brief with the Georgia Supreme Court Friday
defending the legality of the state’s constitutional amendment that
recognizes marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
A state trial court judge threw out Georgia’s constitutional amendment
on May 16, wrongfully applying a technicality that amendments must not
address multiple subjects, according to ADF attorneys (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3758).
“Georgia’s Amendment One has one purpose: to protect marriage from
attack,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson, who successfully
helped defend Louisiana’s constitutional amendment on marriage from
similar attack (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3297).
“The 76 percent of voters in Georgia who voted ‘yes’ to the single
subject of protecting marriage from all contemporary threats deserve
to have their vote respected and not dismissed by radical judges.”
“We trust the Georgia Supreme Court will understand, just as
Louisiana’s high court did, that the sole objective of these
amendments is to protect marriage and that the language of the
amendment is crucial in achieving that single goal,” said Johnson.
“This judge may try to assert that civil unions are a different
subject than same-sex ‘marriage,’ but the people of Georgia know
better. They understand that protecting marriage means protecting it
from all imitations.”
A copy of the friend-of-the-court brief filed in O’Kelley v. Perdue
can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/PerdueAmicus.pdf. The case is scheduled
for oral argument on Tuesday.
For more information on the battle to protect marriage, visit
www.domawatch.org.
ADF is a legal alliance
defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy,
training, funding, and litigation.
www.telladf.org
www.domawatch.org
