The ACLU Fights the Symptoms of Anti-Gay-Marriage Fever in Tennessee

The Tennessee Supreme Court will decide whether voters were given proper notice in advance of this November's vote on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The ACLU and gay and lesbian groups say the state provided 4½ months' notice of the amendment, not the six months state law requires. The state and others argue that wide media coverage provided the public plenty of notice.

If the ACLU is successful, the House and Senate will just vote next year to put the amendment on the ballot in 2008 (and they'll probably pay much more attention to procedural detail). This court decision will likely be a matter of "when," not "if"; but in two years, the anti-gay fervor that was so hot in 2004 may be totatlly passé.