9th Circuit rules in favor of Bradbury

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), August 14, 2008 - Democracy denied: Court disenfranchises Oregon voters

9th Circuit rules that Oregonians cannot vote on state law that runs counter to marriage amendment

PORTLAND, Ore. — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Thursday upheld a district court decision denying Oregon citizens the right to vote on a referendum that concerns a new state law which many believe violates the state’s marriage amendment. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit on Dec. 3 on behalf of several disenfranchised Oregon voters after the secretary of state and several different county clerks invalidated their authentic petition signatures to place the referendum on the November ballot.

“In America, every citizen’s vote should count. The court has tossed aside one of the most important rights we have as Americans,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Austin R. Nimocks. “Oregon voters deserve to be heard on this referendum. More than enough Oregonians signed the petitions for it. The people didn’t thwart this effort; government bureaucracy did. That is a dangerous precedent for the future of the democratic process in America.”

H.B. 2007 provides all the rights of marriage to unmarried, same-sex couples who register with the state. On Dec. 28, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon granted ADF attorneys’ request to prevent the bill from going into effect while their lawsuit over the invalidated petition signatures went forward.

ADF attorneys then requested that the court make its preliminary injunction permanent, but on Feb. 1, the judge refused and lifted the injunction, stating that Oregon voters had no legal right to have their petition signatures counted. ADF attorneys appealed that decision to the 9th Circuit (www.telladf.org).

The 9th Circuit’s opinion in Lemons v. Bradbury is available here.