Fight over lobbying in ballot title escalates

California Attorney General Jerry Brown

California's Protect Marriage organization plans to appeal Attorney General Jerry Brown's "argumentative" title for this fall's ballot initiative to limit marriage to one man and one woman.

"Election ballot titles should be neutral and not intentionally prejudice voters," said Joseph Infranco, a senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, whose lawyers are representing Protect Marriage. "The ballot title is argumentative and not impartial."

The issue is the attorney general's sudden recent decision to change the ballot title on Proposition 8, also known as the California Marriage Protection Act, from a "limit" on marriage to a description that alleges it "eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry."

A lower court judge today upheld the "biased" wording, and ADF officials said their appeal "will ask the California Court of Appeal to order the attorney general to comply with state election law that requires that the ballot title be fair and unbiased."

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"The AG's job is to apply the law in a way that's fair to all Californians, not in a way that influences elections. We will immediately appeal the ruling because the purpose of this amendment is to protect marriage broadly as the union of one man and one woman," Infranco said.

More than a million Californians signed official petitions containing the original ballot title language to put the Proposition 8 constitutional amendment on the November ballot.

If approved by voters, Prop 8 would add the following words to California's constitution: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

The state Supreme Court earlier rejected a lawsuit filed by pro-same-sex marriage organizations that wanted to prevent voters from having their say on the issue.

Florida and Arizona also will vote on installing in their state constitutions in November the restriction that marriage is only the union of one man and one woman. In previous elections, voters in 27 of 28 states given that choice have adopted the language protecting traditional marriage.

Brown's advocacy for one side of the issue is significant because he would be the one to represent the state in lawsuits over the issue if voters approve it.

He already has taken a position, however, saying that in his opinion the same-sex "weddings" performed between their creation by the state Supreme Court in a sharply divided opinion on May 15 and the November election would remain valid even if voters approve the ban.

The November election could overturn the Supreme Court's opinion that an earlier voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage wasn't valid.

"I believe that marriages that have been entered into subsequent to the (May 15) Supreme Court opinion will be recognized by the California Supreme Court," Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle.

But now Brown's new title, scheduled to be submitted to 16 million registered voters, is being challenged because of its bias.

"This is an extremely biased description designed to defeat Proposition 8," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute.

"The 'right' of homosexuals to marry was created out of thin air just three months ago by an activist court. In that unjust ruling, not only was the people's right to pass laws such as Proposition 22 overturned, the justices arrogantly imposed their radical social agenda on our state," she said.

"Now the Democrat elected officials such as Attorney General Jerry Brown are siding with the anti-Prop 8 campaign and using their power to place every obstacle they can before this crucial proposition. Despite the unscrupulous tactics of our opposition, Californians are committed to restoring the definition of marriage ... and we will certainly reject judicial activism," said England.

Protect Marriage spokeswoman Jennifer Kerns said the language is "inherently argumentative" and that it could "prejudice" voters.

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