From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: State readies appeal of Amendment 2 ruling
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 04:38:16 GMT

Gazette Telgraph, Colorado Springs
January 18, 1993

Associated Press

DENVER--The Colorado attorney general's staff, wasting no time in appealing a 
Denver judge's decision to block Amendment 2, expects to present its argument 
to the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Solicitor General Tim Tymkovich said Saturday that state lawyers were working 
through a three-day weekened so they can present the appeal to the Supreme 
Court at the earliest opportunity.  The courts are closed today because of 
Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Amendment 2, the new state constitutional provision that would erase current 
laws and bar new ones protecting gays from discrimination based on sexual 
orientation, was to have taken effect last week. But it was put on hold Friday 
by Denver District Court Judge Jeff Bayless, who found a reasonable probability 
that the law will be ruled unconstitutional when its merits are considered at 
trial.

Tumkovich said the Supreme Court justices are bound by law to refiew Bayless' 
ruling if an appeal is made.  He does not, however, expect a quick ruling.

The high court, Tymkovich said, probably will establish a schedule to accept 
written briefs and then hear oral arguments in late spring or early summer.  He 
said a ruling probably will not come until late fall.

In his ruling Bayless sidestepped a key state argument, Tymkovich said, giving 
the attorney general's staff hopes of prevailing on appeal.

Specifically, he said, the state presented compelling evidence that gays should 
not be treated as a protected class of people.  Tymkovich pointed out that 
homosexuals have never been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court, federal 
appellate courts or Congress as a group that deserves heightened protection 
from discrimination.

The attorney general's office decided an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court 
was necessary because of the way Bayless framed the case.  Bayless ruled that, 
through Amendment 2, the state appears to sanction "private biases" against 
gays and bisexuals.  He said it would do so by not allowing homosexuals avenues 
of redress and complaint through normal channels, including the courts, when 
they become targets of bigotry.

State lawyers counter that the state's position mirrors the federal govern-
ment's decision not to grant gays protected status.

Although the appeal may delay the trial on whether Amendment 2 is 
constitutional, Tymkovich said the state will have a better chance of winning 
if Bayless' injunction--and his claim that the state' s intent is to sanction 
discrimination--is struck down.  That would change the ground rules and improve 
the state's chances of prevailing, he said.

"I think Judge Bayless extended existing precedent to reach the constitutional 
result he did," Tymkovich said.

Bayless, though, said a number of courts have held that neither voters nor 
governments can sanction private bias, regardless of whether the bigotry is 
based on race or on sexual orientation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections, new info, and requests for info: amend2-info@cs.colorado.edu
Administrative comments                     : amend2-mod@cs.colorado.edu
General Discussion                          : amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Boulder/Denver area local meetings/events   : amend2-local@cs.colorado.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to a list, send mail to Majordomo@cs.colorado.edu, with
        subscribe <list-name>
in the BODY of the message.  For multiple lists, use multiple lines.

Newsgroups: co.politics.amend2.info