Raising the curtain on a potentially bitter, prolonged political battle, Republican legislators announced Tuesday that they will propose placing a constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot that would define marriage in Minnesota as only between a man and a woman. Although state law already defines marriage in those terms, backers of the proposal say a constitutional amendment is needed to ward off court rulings that could overturn that law. “Allowing a number of politicians … or, heaven forbid, activist judges to decide the definition of marriage would simply not be acceptable,” said Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, one of the sponsors of a bill to put the amendment on the ballot.

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