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Pridružen/-a: 17.01. 2017, 09:11
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 Objavljeno: 31 Maj 2017 09:41 Naslov sporočila: Louisiana senators won't rework marriage law |
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A Louisiana law that requires people to produce a birth certificate to get a marriage license apparently won't be rewritten, after members of a Senate committee decided Tuesday to let the courts resolve a legal dispute that has temporarily blocked the statute.
A federal judge in March stopped enforcement of the 2016 law. Foreign-born U.S. citizen Viet Anh Vo sued after he was unable to obtain a marriage license because he couldn't produce the document.
Republican Rep. Valarie Hodges, the law's sponsor, sought to tweak it with legislation allowing foreign-born applicants to get a Louisiana marriage license without producing a birth certificate. Instead, they could offer other documents and get a waiver from a judge.
The House overwhelmingly agreed to the change, but a Senate judiciary committee Tuesday voted 3-2 against the proposal to rework the law.
Critics said the bill would meddle with ongoing litigation and would not address all the concerns raised by the lawsuit, keeping a two-tier system in place.
Joy Braun of the Anti-Defamation League said the measure "does not provide fair treatment for all." She said it would maintain unreasonable obstacles for immigrants to marry, creating a more difficult and confusing system for people who don't have a birth certificate listing the United States as the nation of origin.
"If this bill passes, costly litigation will almost certainly follow, an expense this state can ill-afford," Braun told senators. She added: "No one benefits when a state interferes with two people who wish to express their love through the bond of marriage."
Among opponents of the bill were several pastors, religious organizations and the state's Catholic bishops. Louisiana's clerks of courts supported the measure as a way to clarify the law.
Hodges, who didn't attend Tuesday's hearing, has said her law was meant to deter foreigners from gaining visas and citizenship through sham marriages. She told House lawmakers this year's bill was a cleanup measure to address "a few problems" with the law.
Senators, even those who voted against the bill, questioned whether the lawsuit would settle the issue. Sen. Jay Luneau, an Alexandria Democrat, suggested passing something could help clear up the issues raised in the litigation.
"Could we fix the bill?" he asked.
Vo's lawyer Mary Yanik told senators: "This bill doesn't actually fix the problems. It actually continues to create unconstitutional distinctions."
Yanik said a court order permanently blocking enforcement of the law would resolve the issue, and that request has been made to the federal judge. But Luneau and other senators said the Legislature eventually should provide some direction about marriage license issuances.
"It's ultimately going to have to be resolved somehow legislatively to fix some of the issues that the previous legislation caused," said Committee Chairman Rick Ward, a Port Allen Republican.
In March when U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle temporarily blocked the law, he said the birth certificate requirement violates the equal protection rights of foreign-born U.S. citizens, as well as the fundamental right to marry.
Vo had been a U.S. citizen since he was 8 years old but has no birth certificate because he was born in an Indonesian refugee camp after his parents fled Vietnam. His lawsuit said he and his fiancée spent thousands and invited 350 guests to their wedding before their application for a marriage license was rejected last year. They went ahead with the ceremony and exchanged wedding bands, but the marriage lacked legal status.
Voting to defer the bill and stall it in committee were Sens. Luneau; Wesley Bishop, D-New Orleans; and Danny Martiny, R-Kenner. Voting against deferral were Sens. Ryan Gatti, R-Bossier City, and John Milkovich, D-Keithville. Ward, as chairman, didn't vote.Read more at:http://www.marieprom.co.uk/purple-prom-dresses | http://www.marieprom.co.uk/yellow-prom-dresses |
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