Posted on 05/10/2007 12:47:15 PM PDT by SmithL
Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback grilled a judge who attended a same-sex union ceremony in 2002, but said he would no longer block her nomination.
Brownback, a Kansas senator who opposes gay marriage, last year held up the nomination of Janet T. Neff to be a federal District Court judge in Michigan.
The Senate Judiciary Committee had cleared Neff for the post, but Brownback had questions about her role in the same-sex ceremony, which surfaced because of a wedding announcement in The New York Times.
The senator said in December he would stop blocking her nomination if he could question her and get a roll-call vote on the nomination by the full Senate.
Brownback questioned her during a hearing Thursday. Neff said the ceremony, held in September 2002 in Massachusetts, was for the daughter of close family friends and her partner. Neff said she gave a homily, but did not preside over the service.
"But the ceremony itself, you would classify as what you would call a commitment ceremony?" Brownback asked.
"That is, I think, what it was called at the time," Neff said.
"And was it a marriage ceremony?" Brownback asked.
"It was not," Neff said.
Michigan has a state constitutional ban on gay marriage that prohibits recognition of civil unions or same-sex partnerships.
Asked whether she believes there is a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry, Neff said she could not answer, because the matter is pending in state and federal courts.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Man, that picture seems more and more appropriate every day. That picture clearly describes John Edwards’ Two Americas.
Because as a nation we have lost all belief in God.
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