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Opening Arguments

Judge advocates

Remember the main reason given for the proposed amendment to the Indiana constitution banning gay marriage? It was that it would bebetter than the state's a;ready-existing law banning same because a judge could come along and invalidate the law. A constitutional ban would be more permanent.

Well, tell that to the good citizens of Oregon:

A federal judge threw out Oregon's same-sex marriage ban Monday, marking the 13th legal victory for gay marriage advocates since the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned part of a federal ban.

State officials earlier refused to defend Oregon's voter-approved ban and said they wouldn't appeal.

It wasn't a law the judge threw out but consitutional language approved by 60 percent of the voters 10 years ago. Of course, it didn't help that state officials wouldn't even defend the ban. That wouldn't have been the case here -- Attorney General Greg Zoeller would have zeaoulsy defended the state constitution.

Whatever one things of gay marriage, this is an important point:

. . .the Attorney General is the people’s lawyer, their legal representative as well as their top law-enforcement officer. If the state’s elected lawyer doesn’t want to represent the people in court, then he or she should resign and let someone else take the job. The people deserved to be represented in court by their paid attorney, whether the AG liked the law or not.

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