From Don Betzold, Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee Chair in answer to this post.
Eva
You had a question about the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2004 on Senator Bachmann's constitutional amendment bill. Apparently she said that I heard the bill too late to do anything about it in the 2004 session. That is not true. The Massachusetts Supreme Court handed down its decision in November 2003, and within a few days (I believe 2 days) Sen. Bachmann announced that she would introduce a bill in the 2004 session to amend the state constitution to stop judicial activism and to prohibit same sex marriages. She said that this would be her highest priority in 2004. The 2004 session began in early February, but she did not introduce her bill until about six weeks later, right before the first committee deadlines. She said at the time that she was working on the language, which made no sense because she can't change the language of a bill that has been jacketed and its companion has already been introduced in the House. If she wanted to change the language, she should have introduced the Senate companion and then had it amended in committee. At the first committee hearing, we allow authors to amend the bill (as an author's amendment) to put the bill in the shape that the author wishes to initially present it. In fact, in the Judiciary Committee she wanted the committee to adopt the language which had passed the House, not her bill as it was introduced, and we did that.
I gave her bill a hearing on Friday, March 26 2004 which was the final day in which policy bills could be heard in the 2004 session. And it was about two weeks after she introduced her bill. So her bill was heard in time. The bill was voted down in committee. I had a different bill which would have been a constitutional amendment reserving the right to define marriage to the Legislature, not the courts. That bill was moved to the Senate Rules Committee without recommendation. No further action was taken on that bill in 2004.
I hope this answers your questions.
Don Betzold
This does address my questions. Betzold's republican opponent, Pam Wolf is making similar complaints. I doubt this will make the Bachmann amendment supporters happy. |
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