Earlier today I posted about how Missouri's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down by a state-court judge, and I was feeling a complacent sense of happiness that social change was proceeding apace. Well, no more. The Sixth Circuit ruled today in favor of same-sex marriage bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. The decision reverses the district court judges who struck down the various states' bans as unconstitutional. As a result, there is now a circuit split on same-sex marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up same-sex marriage cases earlier this year, but that was when there wasn't a split among the circuit courts of appeals on the issue. The justices are much more likely to take up cases when there is a split about the circuits, so we may get a same-sex marriage case on the court's docket before June after all. Here's the opinion from the Sixth Circuit:
http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/14a0275p-06.pdf
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
