quote:

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(Madrid) A judge in the southern town of Alicante says that Spain's new law legalizing same-sex marriage may violate the Constitution and is asking a higher court to issue a ruling.

Judge Laura Alabau made the announcement in refusing to grant a license to a lesbian couple on Thursday.

She said that the law may be struck down because the constitution specifically refers to marriage as between "a man and a woman."

Alabau is believed to be the first judge in Spain to refuse to marry a same-sex couple.

She said she based her refusal on article 163 of the Spanish Constitution, which allows judges to
file constitutional challenges.

The law granting gay and lesbian couples the right to marry altered the definition of marriage in
the Civil Code to read "Marriage shall have the same requirements and effects whether both parties
are of the same or of the opposite sex."

If Spain's Constitutional Court decides to hear the case it has the power to nullify the new law.

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I note that the source does not identify the provision of the Spanish constitution which is supposedly violated.

So I checked.

Here's what the Spanish constitution says about it:

quote:

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1. Man and woman have the right to marry with full legal equality.

2. The law shall make provision for the forms of marriage, the age and capacity for concluding it, the rights and duties of the spouses, the grounds for separation and dissolution, and their effects.

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It doesn't say that men have to marry women, or vice versa.

Amended to add:

I checked with the Spanish newspaper El Pais, today, and it says that the above Article of the Constitution is indeed the one this "judge" is referring to, s. 32.

http://www.constitucion.es/constitucion/lenguas/ingles.html#1c2

http://www.elpais.es/

[ 25 July 2005: Message edited by: jeff house ]

quote:

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1. Man and woman have the right to marry with full legal equality.
2. The law shall make provision for the forms of marriage, the age and capacity for concluding it, the rights and duties of the spouses, the grounds for separation and dissolution, and their effects.

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Folks, what we have here is a woman who is even less literate than George W. Bush.

While clause 1 grants men and women the constitutional right to marry, it does not actually define marriage as a union between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others.

Meanwhile, clause 2 allows the government to state who may marry, provided that clause 1 is not violated.

If you are as dumb at this woman, I invite you to PokerStars for a fun little game of pot-limit Omaha against yours truly.

[ 26 July 2005: Message edited by: Betray My Secrets ]