No marriage amendment on next Florida ballot News
No marriage amendment on next Florida ballot

[JURIST] Efforts to amend the Florida constitution [text] to ban same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] have faltered as supporters of an amendment failed to meet a Wednesday deadline to secure enough signatures to put the issue on the November ballot. The Florida Coalition to Protect Marriage [advocacy website] made a last effort this week to get the required 611,009 signatures, but only ended up turning in about 455,000. The group says it will now focus on putting the issue on the 2008 ballot. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush [official website] has indicated that he will consider meeting with state legislatures to discuss whether state law defining marriage needs to be strengthened. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Western Allies approve new Germany constitution

On May 12, 1949, the Western allied powers, the United Kingdom, United States, and France, approved the Grundgesetz (Basic Law) as the legal foundation for the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). The document served as the constitution of West Germany during the Cold War and remains the governing law for the unified Germany today. Learn more about the legal framework of the German government from the Bundestag (Parliament of Germany).

Justice Harry A. Blackmun confirmed

On May 12, 1970, the Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment of Harry A. Blackmun to the United States Supreme Court. Justice Blackmun died in 1999, and was remembered on JURIST by several of his former law clerks. The Harry A. Blackmun Papers were released in 2004 by the Library of Congress.