Bishops urge court to affirm Nebraska's same-sex marriage ban

Published: 2005-09-16

ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- Catholic bishops in 21 dioceses in seven states have joined in a friend-of-the-court brief seeking the reversal of a ruling that the Nebraska Constitution violates the U.S. Constitution by defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The brief filed with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in St. Louis, represented the Catholic conferences of Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri and the dioceses of Rapid City and Sioux Falls, S.D., and Little Rock, Ark. There are no state Catholic conferences in South Dakota or Arkansas. Also participating in the brief were Family First and Families for America, Nebraska-based family-advocacy organizations that joined the Nebraska Catholic Conference in a coalition supporting Initiative Measure 416 in 2000. The initiative, which was approved by 70 percent of Nebraska voters, amended the state constitution to read: "Only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in Nebraska. The uniting of two persons of the same sex in a civil union, domestic partnership or other similar same-sex relationship shall not be valid or recognized in Nebraska."

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