From doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU Sat Jan 16 13:17:35 1993 Subject: Judge grants injunction -- Daily Camera Status: U Daily Camera reprinted without permission Boulder, Colorado 01/16/93 Judge grants injunction Amendment 2 can't take effect until after a trial by SALLY McGRATH Camera Staff Writer DENVER -- A Denver judge Friday put the brakes on Amendment 2, ordering that the anti-gay-protection amendment not go into effect until after a trial determines whether it is constitutional. Denver District Judge Jeffery Bayless granted a temporary injunction, saying there is a good chance that the court will find that Amendment 2 violates the U.S. Constitution. Bayless spent 50 minutes analyzing the arguments of the two sides of the debate before announcing his decision. He had ordered that courtroom remain silent, but thunderous applause erupted outside the courtroom door. "The defendants and the governor of Colorado are enjoined from declaring Amendment 2 in force and from enforcing Amendment 2 until further notice," Bayless concluded. Gov. Roy Romer was poised to sign Amendment 2 into law at 5 p.m, but did not. The case is far from settled. The state will appeal the ruling, according to Romer and Attorney General Gale Norton. "Judge Bayless has set out a fairly definitive standard, and we need a higher court to confirm or deny that standard," Romer said. "That decision will help move this case forward, and it is important to Colorado and all of its citizens that we get this matter resolved as soon as possible." The state can go directly to the Colorado Supreme Court and seek a stay -- an immediate freeze of the injunction pending a full hearing before the Colorado Court of Appeals. Regardless of the decision, there will be a full trial on the constitutionality of Amendment 2 this summer. The judge's ruling means that Boulder's ordinance prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals and those of Denver and Aspen will remain in force. Boulder Mayor Leslie Durgin was ecstatic. "I feel like civil rights have been upheld," she said. "It feels good to have challenged this and to have won." The city of Boulder is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging Amendment 2. "I'm elated," said Boulder City Attorney Joe deRaismes. "It makes all the time we put into it worthwhile." Kevin Tebedo, co-founder of Colorado for Family Values, the group that wrote Amendment 2, said he doesn't consider the judge's ruling a setback. "The judge has done something that is fair," he said. "This nation has always taken civil rights very seriously. We do not consider this a setback. We are not downtrodden and long-faced. This is part of the process." Jean Dubofsky, the former Colorado Supreme Court justice who represented Amendment 2 opponents at this week's hearing, predicted the ruling would slow efforts to pass similar measures in other states. Suzanne Goldberg, an attorney with Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, co-counsel for the plaintiffs, said, "This decision affirms what we've argued all along -- the constitution does not hand out rights according to sexual orientation." However, Christof Kheim of BOND, a Boulder homosexual organization, said caution is still in order. "I'm excited, but we don't know what the outcome will be at trial," he said. "We bought some time to try and argue our case. We feel safer as a community." Amendment 2, approved by voters on Nov. 3, prohibits state and local governments from passing laws that protect homosexuals from discrimination. Eight homosexuals, a heterosexual with AIDS and three cities filed the lawsuit challenging the measure's constitutionality. They then asked for the preliminary injunction blocking the measure from taking effect until their case could be heard this summer or fall.* Judge Bayless said he reached his decision at 2:30 a.m. Friday, slept for four hours and then spent the rest of the day writing his decision. "The judge concluded that Amendment 2 affects fundamental federal constitutional rights of homosexuals, specifically the right to be free from state-approved discrimination," said legal analyst Dan Caplis. The judge's ruling bodes well for opponents of Amendment 2 in the long run, he said. "As a practical matter, it will be very difficult for the state to win at trial this summer because, in order to win the injunction, opponents of Amendment 2 had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are likely to succeed at the trial of this matter. Also, Judge Bayless has set the bar very high for the state by concluding it will have to show a compelling state purpose for Amendment 2 in order to win."  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 in the BODY of the message. For multiple lists, use multiple lines.