Wis. Appelate Court Certifies Question on State's Same-Sex Marriage Constitutional Amendment

In McConkey v. Van Hollen, No. 2008AP1868, 2009 WL 943047 (Wis. Ct. App. Apr. 9, 2009), the Wisconsin Court of Appeals certified an appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to consider the validity of the state's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The certified appeal requires resolution of two issues:

• First, "whether Article XIII, Section 13 of the Wisconsin Constitution, commonly known as the marriage amendment, was enacted in violation of the single-subject rule set forth in Article XII, Section 1 of the Wisconsin Constitution."
  
  The constitutional referendum stated:
  

  Shall section 13 of article XIII of the constitution be created to provide that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state and that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.
  

  The Wisconsin Constitution provides that an amendment that has been approved by a majority of both legislative houses in two consecutive sessions and then by a majority of votes in a general election, shall become law, provided that:
  

  if more than one amendment be submitted, they shall be submitted in such manner that the people may vote for or against such amendments separately.
  
  

• Second is a standing issue, specifically "whether a voter who would have voted the same way on each of two propositions included in a single-ballot referendum can claim to have personally suffered a direct injury by an alleged violation of the single-subject rule."

The Northwestern covered the story here.