Wisconsin Referendum 1 (2006)

Wisconsin Referendum 1 of 2006 was a referendum on an amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution that would invalidate same-sex marriages or any substantially similar legal status. The referendum was approved by 59% of voters during the general elections in November 2006. All counties in the state voted for the amendment except Dane County (home of the state capital, Madison, and the University of Wisconsin), which opposed it. The constitutional amendment created by Referendum 1 has been effectively nullified since June 26, 2015, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in ''Obergefell v. Hodges'' that state-level bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.

Amendment

The text of the adopted amendment, which became Article XIII, Section 13 of the state constitution, reads:

As required by the constitution, the amendment was approved by both houses of the legislature, in two consecutive sessions. The legislative history of the amendment is as follows:

*March 5, 2004: Approved by Wisconsin State Assembly by a vote of 68–27.
*March 12, 2004: Approved by Wisconsin State Senate by a vote of 20-13
*December 6, 2005: Approved by the State Senate a second time, by a vote of 19–14.
*February 28, 2006: Approved by the State Assembly a second time.
*November 7, 2006: Approved by referendum, by a margin of 59.4%-40.6%.

Effects

The amendment, which took effect on November 7, 2006, constitutionally banned same-sex marriages, which were never recognized by the state and was statutorily banned since 1979, and civil unions or civil union equivalents, which were never recognized by the state. Wisconsin became the 21st US state to ban same-sex marriage in its constitution and 14th US state to ban civil unions or civil union equivalents in its constitution. This preempted the state judiciary from requiring the state to legally recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions or civil union equivalents and preempted the Wisconsin Legislature from enacting a statute legalizing same-sex marriages or civil unions or civil union equivalents. Domestic partnerships in Wisconsin, legal statewide for state employees only and 1 county and 3 municipalities at the time, were unaffected by the amendment. In 2009, Wisconsin would enact statewide domestic partnerships for everyone, which would later be repealed in 2018.

Legal challenge

In April 2009 the Wisconsin Supreme Court was asked in ''McConkey v. Van Hollen'' to rule on whether the 2006 Referendum 1 was constitutional. William McConkey, a political science instructor, claimed that the measure violated the state's constitution because it proposed more than one question in a single ballot proposal, which is impermissible under Wisconsin law. On June 30, 2010, the Court ruled that the amendment referendum question was permissible and thus the amendment had been properly passed. In 2014, the ACLU filed a lawsuit, Wolf v Walker, to challenge the amendment and a federal judge agreed. On June 6, 2014, the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin overturned all bans on same-sex marriage in the state. On October 6, 2014, same sex marriage was legalized in Wisconsin.

Pre-decision opinion polls

References

External links

*2005 Enrolled Joint Resolution 30 ()

{{Same-sex marriage in the United States

U.S. state constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions
2006 in LGBTQ history
2006 Wisconsin elections
2006 ballot measures in the United States
Wisconsin ballot measures
LGBTQ history in Wisconsin
Same-sex marriage ballot measures in the United States