Election 2012
Ritchie Was Right On Same-Sex Marriage Wording: Letter to the Editor
Dale Carpenter is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Minnesota.
Editor's Note: Prof. Dale Carpenter sent in this note in response to a poll and discussion on Patch about Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's choice of a title for a constitution amendment on the 2012 ballot that would ban same-sex marriage. One thing the news outlets have been missing is that it's actually the legal responsibility of the secretary of state, not the legislature, to determine the ballot title. That has been the case since 1919, when the Secretary of State was given authority to choose an "appropriate title" for amendments passed by the legislature. The idea is that the governmental body that wants the amendment should not be allowed single-handedly to stack the deck in its favor by choosing the title as well. It's a…
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Andrea Parrott
1:39 pm on Saturday, November 24, 2012
Thanks! Got it. more ›