In another strategic move, the American Civil Liberties Union and Basic Rights Oregon have appealed the certified ballot title for IP 146 - an initiative petition to repeal the Oregon Family Fairness Act, which provides a panoply of rights and responsibilities to committed same-sex couples - to the Oregon Supreme Court. 

The Supreme Court appeal could delay the signature-gathering efforts for IP 146 by at least several weeks if not longer, according to the State Elections Division office. As with all initiative petition appeals to the state Supreme Court, there is no strict timeline for a decision being delivered on IP 146.

The IP 146 appeal, filed just before the May 21 deadline, comes on the heels of two current outstanding state Supreme Court appeals regarding separately filed rights-stripping initiative petitions - IP 144, which seeks also to repeal the Oregon Family Fairness Act but shows signs of legal flaws, and IP 145, which seeks to repeal the Oregon Equality Act, an anti-discrimination law providing sexual orientation and gender identity protections. All three initiative petitions are sponsored by a coterie of Republican legislators with ties to longtime equal rights foe Marylin Shannon; Shannon herself is a co-sponsor of IP 146.

The state Supreme Court has yet to hand down an opinion and final judgment on the IP 144 and IP 145 appeals, and it is unclear when that may happen. This leaves Concerned Oregonians, the officially sanctioned political action committee organizing volunteers and raising funds in support of the initiative petitions, an increasingly small window of time in which to circulate the petitions. Regardless of when the Supreme Court hands down a decision on the three petition appeals, the organization has only until July 3, 2008 to produce 82,769 valid signatures for each initiative petition.

In spite of their efforts to put the petitions before the public being stalled, Concerned Oregonians has been working diligently behind the scenes to shore up resources and support for their initiatives, and recently scored endorsements for their efforts from the Oregon Catholic Conference - the cooperative entity encompassing both the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland and Diocese of Baker in eastern Oregon with a total of almost half a million member parishioners - and the Catholic fraternal organization, Knights of Columbus, which has pledged to assist in signature-gathering efforts, if and when the petitions are approved for circulation.

As of May 23, 40 days remain until the July 3rd signature submission deadline.

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