the perils of sloppy wording

[owlmoose]

My last election spam of the day, I promise. But this was too good to pass up. Read literally, the anti-same sex marriage amendment to the Texas constitution may invalidate all marriage.

Here's the exact text of the law:

SECTION 1. Article I, Texas Constitution, is amended by adding Section 32 to read as follows:
Sec. 32. (a) Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.
(b) This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.

There you have it. Because "any legal status identical... to marriage" sounds an awful lot like marriage to me....

Comments

[plantgirl.livejournal.com]

I have a hard time believing that could slip by the proof-readers. It'll be waay too funny if it turns out to be true.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

That's the actual text of the law as it appears on the Texas Legislature's website. The only question in my mind is whether any judge would have the guts to rule on the literal interpretation.

[furitaurus.livejournal.com]

Ha! As a fundamentalist Christian, Bush must be fuming!

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

He's probably in denial, like all the other proponants of the bill. Maybe someone will take it to court; then we'll see.

[furitaurus.livejournal.com]

Heh. A state where marriage is against the law, that must be a world first.

[i-iambe.livejournal.com]

He probably would be if someone explained it to him. Which is unlikely to happen, as apparently neither the people who wrote the bill, nor the people who voted on it ever actually understood what it said.

I hope someone challenges it. And I hope they win.

P.S. I read it to my mother, the lawyer and she interprets it the same way as owlmoose. :)

[furitaurus.livejournal.com]

He is a dumb arse isn't he? The strange thing is he still manages to smile quite a bit, even today and I'm thinking '...what the hell are smiling about? You've been made to look like the biggest arse hole in history, you've got nothing to smile about.' I sometimes wonder if g-d was giving out personalities and he got into the wrong queue- thought he was giving out hairstyles and asked for thick and wavy.