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Ohio court
debates domestic violence and marriage ban
Ohio's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage will be tested for the first time with regard to its effect on domestic-violence statutes and unmarried couples.
Ohio's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage will be tested for the first time with regard to its effect on domestic violence statutes and unmarried couples. The Associated Press reports that Warren County prosecutor Rachel Hutzel argued Tuesday to the state's supreme court that the amendment, approved by voters in 2004, was intended only to ban marriages and civil unions for same-sex couples, not to invalidate domestic-violence laws when the couple involved is unmarried.
Attorney Thomas Eagle argued, however, that the state had contradicted the language of the ban when his client, Michael Carswell, was charged with assaulting his girlfriend, who lived with him, AP reports. The ban declares that no state law may "approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effect of marriage," according to the AP. (The Advocate)
