Free Republic

Orange County state senators split along party lines last week on a bill to ban gay marriage. Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, sponsored SCA1, a proposed constitutional amendment to mandate that only marriages between man and woman are recognized in the state. Morrow, whose district includes San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano, cited the support of 61 percent of voters for Proposition 22 in 2000, which recognized only male-female marriages. In March, a San Francisco Superior Court judge declared the law discriminatory and unconstitutional. Morrow presented his bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Santa Ana. Dunn...

A long-stalled constitutional amendment to bolster public access to government meetings and records was placed on California's November ballot Monday by lawmakers after twice bogging down in the state Assembly. The Senate approved similar versions of the amendment in 2002 and 2003, but both times the legislation ran into Republican roadblocks in the other house. There was no sign of the measure's past problems on Monday, however, as it passed the Assembly 76-0. "When it comes to public information there are too many unnecessary roadblocks and too many easy refusals," the amendment's author, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San...