Nebraska Marriage Definition, Measure 416 (2000)
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The Nebraska Marriage Definition Amendment, also known as Measure 416 or the Ban Same Sex Marriage Act, was on the ballot in Nebraska on November 7, 2000, as an initiated constitutional amendment, where it was approved. The amendment was overturned in 2015.
Measure 416 amended the Nebraska Constitution to "provide that only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in Nebraska, and to provide that 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."[1]
Aftermath
U.S. District Court
Judge Joseph Bataillon of the U.S. District Court for Nebraska stuck down the state's ban on same-sex marriages. He deemed the ban an "unabashedly gender-specific infringement of the equal rights of its citizens."[2]
On March 6, 2015, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals put Bataillon's ruling on hold. The court scheduled arguments for the case, which also included similar bans in South Dakota, Arkansas and Missouri, on May 11, 2015.[3]
U.S. Supreme Court
- See also: Obergefell v. Hodges
On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution in the case Obergefell v. Hodges. This ruling overturned all voter-approved constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.[4]
Justice Anthony Kennedy authored the opinion and Justices Ruth Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito each authored a dissent.
The concluding paragraph of the court's majority opinion read:
| “ | No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.[5] | ” |
| —Opinion of the Court in Obergefell v. Hodges[6] | ||
Election results
| Nebraska Measure 416 (2000) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Overturned Case:Waters v. Ricketts | ||||
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
| Yes | 477,571 | 70.10% | ||
| No | 203,667 | 29.90% | ||
Official results via: Nebraska Legislature
Text of measure
The question on the ballot:
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"A vote "FOR" will amend the Nebraska Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in Nebraska, and to provide that 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. A vote "AGAINST" will not amend the Nebraska Constitution in the manner described above. Shall the Nebraska Constitution be amended to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in Nebraska, and to provide further that 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?"[7] [5] |
Related measures
Many historical marriage and family-related ballot measures regard the definition of legal marriage. The debate often revolved around whether marriage should be legally defined as the “union of one male and one female” or the “union of two persons [regardless of sex].” Voters chose to define marriage as between “one male and one female” in the following 30 states. The first constitutional prohibition was in 1998, and the latest one occurred in May 2012. All bans on same-sex marriage were overturned in the 2015 United States Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges.
- 1998: Alaska
- 2000: Nebraska
- 2002: Nevada
- 2004: Arkansas
- 2004: Georgia
- 2004: Kentucky
- 2004: Louisiana
- 2004: Michigan
- 2004: Mississippi
- 2004: Missouri
- 2004: Montana
- 2004: North Dakota
- 2004: Ohio
- 2004: Oklahoma
- 2004: Oregon
- 2004: Utah
- 2005: Kansas
- 2005: Texas
- 2006: Alabama
- 2006: Colorado
- 2006: Idaho
- 2006: South Carolina
- 2006: South Dakota
- 2006: Tennessee
- 2006: Virginia
- 2006: Wisconsin
- 2008: Arizona
- 2008: California
- 2008: Florida
- 2012: North Carolina
See also
- List of Nebraska ballot measures
- Nebraska 2000 ballot measures
- 2000 ballot measures
- History of Initiative & Referendum in Nebraska
External links
- Nebraska Legislature
- 2000 Sample Ballot
- Nebraska Blue Book 2008-09
- 2000 Election Results
- Informational pamphlet from Nebraska SOS
- Californians, take a lesson from Nebraska (dead link)
- Initiative 416, timeline of events
References
- ↑ Nebraska Legislature, "Statistics on Constitutional Amendments, Initiated and Referred Measures," accessed July 10, 2015
- ↑ Reuters, "U.S. judge rules Nebraska same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional," March 2, 2015
- ↑ Omaha World‑Herald, "Same-sex marriages in Nebraska on hold after circuit court stays ruling," March 6, 2015
- ↑ NPR, "Supreme Court Declares Same-Sex Marriage Legal In All 50 States," June 26, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributed to the original source.
- ↑ Supreme Court of the United States, "Obergefell v. Hodges," June 26, 2015
- ↑ Nebraska Secretary of State, "Sample Ballot Nonpartisan Ticket General Election November 7, 2000 Proposed Constitutional Amendments," accessed August 4, 2015
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