Life Without Antidiscrimination Laws
Life Without Fair Courts Editorial Cartoon Series by Mikhaela Reid
Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996)
Plaintiffs: Richard Evans, et. al
Defendants: Governor Roy Romer of Colorado, et al.
Issue: Can a state enact a constitutional amendment that prohibits state laws protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination?
Case Summary
Fair-minded legislators in various Colorado municipalities over the years had enacted local laws protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination. Extremists who preferred to legally discriminate against gay people pushed through, and voters narrowly passed, a severe antigay constitutional amendment. “Amendment 2” would have invalidated any laws protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination in all areas such as housing, insurance, health and welfare systems, education and employment.
Fortunately, Amendment 2 never took effect. The groups and individuals who opposed Amendment 2, represented in part by Lambda Legal, worked quickly to prevent the amendment from actually being applied until the trial court, the Colorado Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court — the final decision maker in this case — all agreed that this amendment violated constitutional principles of equality and was therefore against the law. The U.S. Supreme Court found that the “sheer breadth [of the amendment] is so discontinuous with the reason offered for it that the amendment seems inexplicable by anything but animus toward [gay men and lesbians].”
