Joe Infranco: Let Oregon voters rule on domestic partnerships
ADF Attorney Joe Infranco has this commentary in The Register-Guard. He begins:
What is the most important right we have as Americans? A poll would produce a number of answers. But one right that would rise to the top is the right to be heard in the political process — whether by vote or by citizens’ initiative.
And rightly so. When citizens are denied this basic right, they no longer live in a democratic society.
That principle is why attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund are appealing a federal judge’s Feb. 1 decision to lift his injunction against a statewide “domestic partnership” law, House Bill 2007.
The voters’ opinions on this law have never been heard. They haven’t been heard because several registered Oregon voters were disenfranchised when their petition signatures for a referendum were not properly validated by clerks’ offices in 12 different counties . . .