Question about Vermont: How voluntary was legislative passage of the marriage equality bill?

[TechBear_Seattle]

I know that in 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in Baker v. Vermont that restricting civil marriage to different-sex couples violated the state constitution, and ordered the legislature to address this inequality. The legislature responded by creating domestic partnerships, the first state in the US to do so. I know that DP has been under attack since then by marriage advocates, on the grounds that separate institutions are inherently unequal and that DPs did not meet the standard of equality set by the state Court, and believe that the Vermont Court had recently or was soon to hear arguments on that very matter.

So, realistically, how voluntary was the Vermont legislature's actions? Could the threat of judicial intervention have played a part in pulling together a veto override?

Mind you, I have no complaints whatsoever with the passage of this bill and the veto override. I'm just looking for a bit of context. :hi:

[cali]

1. nope. the VT SC is not about to hear anything

about marriage equality. That was not the route that the taskforce led by the wonderful Beth Robinson chose to take.

The legislation was brought up entirely voluntarily by legislators in the Senate and House. Granted VT Freedom To Marry Taskforce did a wonderful job over the years getting us to this place but they had lots of strong advocates in the legislature, including Dick Sears in the Senate and Bill Lippert, who is openly gay and is the Chair of the House Judiciary.

The threat of judicial intervention was nonexistent.