ACLU to Carcieri: Withdraw the Bopp brief
In a tersely written press release issued earlier today, the Rhode Island ACLU affiliate called on Gov. Carcieri to withdraw a brief submitted to the Supreme Court in which he express an ardent opposition to marriages of same sex spouses.
This is from the ProJo blog.
The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union announced today it’s called on Governor Carcieri to withdraw a legal brief submitted for a state Supreme Court case that could decide if a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts could divorce in Rhode Island.
The ACLU said it and three other organizations sent a letter to the governor because the “strong opposition to same-sex marriage contained in the governor’s brief — written by an out-of-state private attorney — has been widely noted.”
In a news release, the ACLU specifically says it’s focusing on the governor’s “inexplicable attack” on Rhode Island’s “no-fault divorce laws.” The ACLU quotes the brief asserting that no-fault divorce has resulted in “more children ill equipped to cope in a world already fraught with problems” and even that it’s led women to take “steps to protect their human capital by entering the work force and pursuing education.”
In response to that, the ACLU news release said it knows there are “some people out there who long for a return to the ‘idyllic’ 1950s when women knew their place was in the kitchen, but we do not expect to hear echoes of it emanating from a gubernatorial court brief.”
If the brief is not withdrawn, the ACLU says, then “we request that [the governor] formally clarify your position on these issues.”
Here’s the rest of the story.
You might remember we ruffled a few feathers in the Gov’s office last week when Chairman Lynch called Carcieri out for essentially using taxpayer money to advance his own personal, political agenda.
Yeah, we get it, governor, you’re against marriage equality. But did you really have to use $15K in taxpayer money to make your point? The answer of course, is no. So if you get a second and feel like sounding off, you can always give the governor’s office a call at 222-2080. Tell him you don’t think it’s appropriate to use your money to fund his political fight. Hey, and if you’re really lucky, they’ll let you talk to Steve Kass.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Even more upsetting in some ways than his use of tax payer dollars is the content of the brief as it relates to no fault divorce. The content is unreal– no fault divorce encouraged women to access higher education which is apparently a problem for our Gov. I guess the Gov hates lgbt people and women. You can find a link to the full content to the brief we paid for at http://www.marraigeequalityri.org/blog — The content of the brief is shocking and worth reading so you can get the full effect of what we paid for.