Within minutes of Maryland's high court upholding a ban on same-sex marriage, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle began preparing for what is sure to be a pitched battle in the next General Assembly session over what rights -- if any -- gay couples should be afforded.
"I see it being a fight," said Sen. Brian E. Frosh, the Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. "And it's hard to predict the outcome."
Conservative lawmakers promised to reintroduce a constitutional amendment that would make clear that marriage is an institution limited to heterosexual couples, an amendment that has stalled in committee in years past.
Others said they intend to propose that same-sex couples be given the same state rights as their heterosexual counterparts, a concept that activists are calling civil marriage. Still others are already talking compromise, which could resemble the civil unions that exist in several other states or could look like something else altogether.
What they agree on is that the court ruling gives a legislature that was already expecting a busy session another -- and likely contentious -- set of issues to sort out come January. Most legislators had been avoiding the same-sex marriage issue while waiting for the court to rule.
Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr., an Anne Arundel County Republican, has been at the forefront of past efforts to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. While he called yesterday "a wonderful day" in the wake of the court ruling, he wasn't dialing back the rhetoric. Even though the court agreed with his stance, he still thinks a constitutional amendment -- which would have to be approved by voters -- is a necessity.
"The amendment is simply an insurance policy," he said.
Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell, the House Republican leader from Southern Maryland, said that the case even got to the Court of Appeals -- a lower court found the state's marriage law discriminatory -- proves the need for the amendment.
"It highlights the vulnerability of our law, and so it may be important that in order to prevent an activist judge from taking a provision of our law to make a far-reaching decision that was never intended, we need to clarify the law," he said.
To pass a constitutional amendment, opponents of same-sex marriage would need to win the votes of two-thirds of the legislators in each house. The measure would then be placed on the ballot in the next statewide elections -- which are in even years in Maryland.
