same-sex marriage

Florida's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down today by Florida Circuit Judge Luis M. Garcia, the Associated Press reports. Garcia characterized the issue as one of equal protection for a powerless minority: "'Whether it is ... when Nazi supremacists won the right to march in Skokie, Illinois, a predominantly Jewish neighborhood; or when a black woman wanted to marry a white man in Virginia; or when black children wanted to go to an all-white school, the Constitution guarantees and protects ALL of its citizens from government interference with those rights."

Florida's ban prohibited both same-sex marriages and domestic partnerships, the AP reports.

After a Colorado state judge ruled that the state's same-sex marriage ban is "hanging on by a thread," at least three counties have been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the Associated Press reports.

In one decision, Adams District Judge C. Scott Crabtree ruled Wednesday that the ban violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause and the arguments in support of the ban about protecting family and promoting the procreation of children are just a "'pretext for discriminating against same-sex marriages,'" Fox 31 out of Denver reports. Some counties were already issues licenses after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Utah's ban on same-sex marriage, Fox 31 also reports.

In another decision, Boulder District Judge Andrew Hartman allowed the Boulder County Clerk to continue issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, The Daily Caller reports. Hartman opined that that the ban is "'hanging on by a thread and the court must presume that it remains valid.'"

The latest state-level ban on same-sex marriage has fallen after a Kentucky federal judge ruled yesterday that "'even sincere and long-held religious beliefs do not trump the constitutional rights of those who happen to have been out-voted,"' UPI reports. Judges now have overturned marriage bans in 20 states, UPI also reports.

The Tenth Circuit ruled today that Utah's ban on same-sex marriage violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, while a federal judge in Indiana rejected that state's ban on same-sex matrimony, USA Today reports. The 10th Circuit ruling is the first appellate ruling in the country, USA Today further reports.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett decided against appealing a federal judge's ruling striking down the ban on same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania. Corbett announced the decision just one day after U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III reached his decision. Gayapolis notes that the appeal period expired last week, so the reality of same-sex marriage has really, really arrived in the Keystone State.

While the federal government is planning a significant expansion of benefits for same-sex spouses, federal laws bar the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Social Security Administration from extending some benefits, the Wall Street Journal reports. Benefits will mostly only extend to spouses that live in states that recognize their marriages.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb struck down Wisconsin's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. “'Quite simply, this case is about liberty and equality, the two cornerstones of the rights protected by the United States Constitution,' U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb wrote in her Friday ruling," according to the Journal. Crabb also wrote that, "'If the state is going to deprive an entire class of citizens of a right as fundamental as marriage, then it must do more than say, ‘this is the way it has always been’ or ‘we’re not ready yet.'"
 

Kristen Hansen, with the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Journal, "'We just don't think that the majority should vote on the civil rights of the minority.'"

According to a Gallup poll, 63 percent of Americans said same-sex couples should have the right to adopt children. This is the highest level of support Gallup has ever found in 20 years of tracking the issue.

The Associated Press has a profile on the federal and state judges who have been striking down bans on same-sex marriage: "Collectively, these judges are diverse — white and black, male and female, gay and straight, some appointed by Democratic presidents and some by Republicans. However, they seemed to draw common inspiration from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2013 that ordered the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages ... But the judges' opinions — often embellished by soaring language — reflected a yearning to be on what they had come to see as the right side of history."

North Dakota is the last state to have its ban on same-sex marriage tested in court. A civil rights lawyer, who brought a challenge to South Dakota's ban, is in talks to file a court challenge to North Dakota's ban, the Washington Post reports.