Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 15:45:51 -1000
From: ramsey@math.hawaii.edu (Tom Ramsey)
Subject: HI Supreme Court Asks For Briefings

	Hawaii's Supreme Court Schedules Briefings

	Last week, Hawaii's Supreme Court appointed
a fifth judge (Burns) to the Baehr case.  This week
they scheduled briefings on this issue:
    Does the new constitutional amendment have
    any effect on the disposition of the State's
    appeal of the Baehr case, retrospectively or
    prospectively?
Hawaii's Attorney General must file 30 days from now,
then the Baehr attorneys (Dan Foley and Evan Wolfson)
must respond within 30 days of that, and then the
Attorney General has 10 days to respond to the Baehr
attorneys' brief.  The clock is finally ticking, now.
Roughly, the first week of February the Hawaii Supreme
will have all materials on which to make a decision.

	The political situation in Hawaii is fluid.  The Legislature
probably has to pass a new law banning same-sex marriage to
be able to exercise its new authority under the new constitutional
amendment, because their 1994 law was struck down by Judge
Kevin Chang.  The day after the Nov. 3 election, Gov. Cayetano
called for a comprehensive domestic partnership act (he said
that gays and lesbians were people too, and that we all some
of them in our families, including his own).  Linda Rosehill,
a lead lobbyist for the pro-Constitutional Amendment forces,
also publicly announced that she supports domestic partnership
rights.  Mike Gabbard and Jack Hoag, leaders of the pro-Amendment
forces, are publicly upset with the Governor's proposal.  It
is hard to imagine the Legislature taking up this controversial
nest of issues one more time, but the clock is now ticking.  If
the Legislature doesn't pass a law banning same-sex marriage,
the Hawaii Supreme Court will probably order the marriage
licenses issued.

				Happy Thanksgiving!

				Tom Ramsey

P.S.  Marriage Project Hawaii fully supports Dan Foley
in the court work that is coming up; donations to Marriage Project
Hawaii are tax-deductible and should be sent to PO Box 11690,
Honolulu, HI 96828.

      Helping whatever DP proposal comes from Governor Cayetano
will be done by Hawaii's ACLU and probably Friends of Marriage
Project Hawaii (the latter organization doesn't have the funds
right now, but may be raising funds soon).  If the avenue of DP
rights and incremental change is something that you find valuable,
feel free to email me at ramsey@math.hawaii.edu to learn how
you can help.