ARKANSAS: AG Rejects Wording Of Ballot Measure To Repeal Marriage Ban

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has rejected the wording of a proposed ballot measure that would repeal that state's 2004 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The attorney general said the proposal by Arkansans for Equality contained misleading tendencies and a failure to include any mention of the proposal’s effect on the state’s current law, Amendment 83, which was approved with 75 percent of the vote. The proposal also failed to meet the state Supreme Court’s requirement for impartiality.

“Specifically, rather than simply describing Amendment 83 to the Arkansas Constitution (the amendment proposed to be repealed), your proposed ballot title asserts an abridgment of undefined ‘rights’ and seems to presume Amendment 83’s illegality in terms of federal law and the laws of other states,” the opinion said.

“It is conclusory and partisan to assert that Amendment 83 ‘limits’ Arkansans’ ‘rights’ and ‘prevents federal laws … being applied in a consistent manner,’” the opinion said. “To use such terms and phrases is to promote by implication, not to summarize, a proposal. As a consequence, the proposed ballot title has misleading tendencies and fails to meet the Arkansas Supreme Court’s requirement of impartiality.”

Arkansans For Equality is working to put the repeal on the 2014 ballot.