Editorial: Time to go, Councilmembers De León and Cedillo
The time for the Council to turn in a bill to the state legislature in support of Proposition 8 has come.
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The time for the Council to turn in a bill to the state legislature in support of Proposition 8 has come.
A bill passed by the Assembly Judiciary Committee (AB 1575) and the Assembly Appropriations Committee (AB 1317) would amend the state constitution to include language that would allow same-sex married couples to adopt but prohibit a person who is related to a minor or who is a noncustodial parent from doing so.
The bill is a big change to the law. It was amended in the committees and then the Assembly Appropriations Committee approved a version of the bill but it was not considered for final passage because Assemblymembers Cedillo, De León and Dumeant all voted against.
It is unfortunate that all three were opposed to the bill but that should not have been the end of the story.
The reason the bill wasn’t brought to the floor that day was because AB 1575 had been sent back to the committee but had not been taken up for a vote.
On the day it was supposed to be taken up, the bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Steve Fox (D-Orinda), sent a letter to the committee members stating that the Assembly was preparing to take up the bill.
He told the Assemblymembers that once the bill was brought to the floor, he would give a floor vote. When the Assembly took up the bill, there was still no vote because the bill had not been tabled. The clerk read the bill, the Assemblymembers took a vote. The bill was tabled and Fox was still there giving a floor vote.
Once again, I would like to point out that this is not the first time that the Council needs to pass the bill. Assemblymembers De León, Cedillo and Dumeant have consistently passed bills that do nothing to move the state toward civil unions, much less same-sex