LGBT rights

Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down today, just a day after Oregon's ban on sam-sex marriage was struck down. Marriages have begun in both states.

Now there are 25 states that allow same-sex marriage and 25 that don't, the Associated Press reports.

In Oregon, U.S. District Judge Michael McShane said there was no rational relationship to any legitimate government interest to ban same-sex couples from marrying, the Oregonian reports. He also found that the ban violates same-sex couples' constitutional right to equal protection.

In Pennsylvania, U.S. District Judge John Jones III said same-sex marriages must be discarded onto the ash heap of history, the AP reports. 

The Utah Supreme Court has temporarily halted the issuance of birth certificates in same-sex parent adoptions, the Associated Press reports. One district court had ordered government officials to explain the state's refusal to recognize a same-sex couple's adoption, the AP further reports.

The 10th Circuit is currently deciding whether to uphold a lower-court ruling striking down Utah's ban on same-sex marriage.

Idaho has become the latest state to have its ban on same-sex marriage overturned, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale wrote, '''Idaho’s marriage laws withhold from them (gay and lesbian couples) a profound and personal choice, one that most can take for granted.  By doing so, Idaho’s marriage laws deny same-sex couples the economic, practical, emotional and spiritual benefits of marriage, relegating each couple to a stigmatized second class status.'"

Marriages can begin Friday morning.

The Fourth Circuit became the second federal appellate court to consider a decision to strike down a ban on same-sex marriage, Law.com's Marcia Coyle reports: "Judging by comments made by the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit hearing Virginia’s case, the fate of the state’s ban, one of the most restrictive in the country, could hang on the vote of one judge."

Some of the plaintiffs are represented by the same legal team that successfully challenged California's ban on same-sex marriage but did not get a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether states can limit marriage to unions between men and women, Coyle writes.

When the judges on the 10th Circuit heard an appeal of Utah's ban on same-sex marriage being struck down, they also appeared divided.
 

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has been the author of key gay rights opinions. He wrote the opinions in Romer v. Evans, holding that a Colorado constitutional amendment barring providing any special legal protection to gays and lesbians lacked a rational relationship to any legitimate governmental purpose, Lawrence v. Texas, holding that Texas' law against sodomy violated  substantive due process protection for consensual sexual conduct, and United States v. Windsor, holding that the federal Defense Against Marriage Act was unconstitutional. But opponents to same-sex marriage are now "seizing upon other opinions by Kennedy himself," the Associated Press reports: "It was Kennedy who last month defended the right of voters to decide sensitive issues, in a ruling that upheld Michigan's ban on taking race into account in college admissions. At least five states have invoked Kennedy's opinion in the Michigan case to argue that voters and elected officials, not judges, should choose whether same-sex couples can be married or have their marriages recognized within their borders."

The third state in the South has had its ban on same-sex marriage struck down, the Associated Press reports. The state judge ruled that, even under rational basis review, there is no reason gay couples can't marry and that the voter-approved amendment to the state constitution violates their rights, according to the AP. Oklahoma and Virginia are the other southern state that has had its same-sex marriage ban struck down.

Even though Indiana bans same-sex marriage, a federal judge ordered the recognition of the marriage of a same-sex couple who wedded in Massachusetts and now reside in Indiana, the Lafayette Journal & Courier, of Lafayette, Indiana, reports. Niki Quasney has terminal ovarian cancer, and she and her wife, Amy Sandler, now are the only same-sex couple to have their marriage legally recognized in Indiana. The judge, however, has not yet decided if all out-of-state same-sex marriages must be recognized in Indiana as a matter of comity, the Journal & Courier also reports.

A liberal Protestant denomination filed a lawsuit last week challenging North Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage, arguing that the freedom of religion of its clergy members is violated because they are not able to join same-sex couples in matrimony, the New York Times reports.  The lawsuit is the "first such case brought by a national religious denomination challenging a state’s marriage laws," the Times further reports.

North Carolina's law criminalizes the religious blessing of weddings that do not involve state-issued marriage licenses.

Three same-sex couples in Tennessee had legal recognition of their out-of-state marriages stayed after the Sixth Circuit entered a temporary order while the case is on appeal, The Tennessean reports. The plaintiffs argue Tennessee's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriages harms them.

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that tax exemptions available to married couples must be provided to same-sex spouses even though the state bans gay marriage, Reuters reports. The tax exemption is for senior citizens and disabled veterans that sometimes take martial status into account, Reuters further reports.

'"For purposes of analyzing the effects of the exemption program, we hold that committed same-sex domestic partners who would enter into marriages recognized in Alaska if they could are similarly situated to those opposite-sex couples who, by marrying, have entered into domestic partnerships formally recognized in Alaska,' the Alaska Supreme Court's written opinion stated," Reuters reports.