Hawaii, challenge denied

Hawaii did slip in front of Illinois in providing marriage equality. Hawaii's governor signed the bill yesterday. The gov. of Illinois will have his ceremony next week. So Hawaii gets to be #15.

Hawaii has also fended off a legal challenge of the new marriage equality law. About 24 hours after the law was signed a judge (I don't know at what level) tossed out the challenge. The challengers claimed the 1998 constitutional amendment banned same-sex marriage, because that's what voters thought they were voting for. The judge (and Attorney General) replied the amendment said the legislature gets to decide if same-sex couples may marry. In 1996 (before the amendment) the legislature decided they could not. And this year the legislature decided we could.

Ari Ezra Waldman provides a bit of history of marriage equality in Hawaii. Twenty years ago several same-sex couples asked for marriage licenses. Their case went to the Hawaii Supremes, who told the lower court to explain more completely why same-sex couple should be excluded from marriage. That case scared the socks off Congress and in 1996 the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was enacted. And now a big chunk of DOMA is gone -- and Hawaii has marriage equality.