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Tag: same sex marriage ban
Pennsylvania Governor Abandons Appeal On Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

Pennsylvania Governor Abandons Appeal On Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times

Pennsylvania will not appeal a federal court ruling that overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, ending the battle over the issue in the Keystone State, Governor Tom Corbett announced Wednesday.

The decision, announced in emails to reporters, means that Pennsylvania will continue to be the 19th state in the nation, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize gay marriage. Officials began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Tuesday after U.S. District Court Judge John Jones III, sitting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, ruled that the state’s 1996 ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.

Corbett, a Republican, is in an uphill fight for his second term as governor. Pundits and polls have said that he is vulnerable to the millionaire businessman Tom Wolf, who won the Democratic nomination in this week’s primary.

Corbett’s action might help remove the issue from the electoral fray. In a March Quinnipiac University poll of Pennsylvania voters, 57 percent of respondents said they supported a law allowing same-sex couples to marry, while 37 percent opposed it. The poll also split along party lines with 74 percent of Democrats saying they supported same-sex marriage, while 59 percent of Republicans opposed it.

In his statement, Corbett said he had reviewed the ruling before deciding to abandon an appeal.

“Given the high legal threshold set forth by Judge Jones in this case, the case is extremely unlikely to succeed on appeal,” Corbett stated. “Therefore, after review of the opinion and on the advice of my Commonwealth legal team, I have decided not to appeal Judge Jones’ decision.”

Corbett’s office had fought to keep the state’s ban in place while Attorney General Kathleen Kane, a Democrat, called it unconstitutional and refused to defend it. The governor said he still personally opposed gay marriage, but would abide by the court’s ruling.

“As a Roman Catholic, the traditional teaching of my faith has not wavered,” Corbett stated. “I continue to maintain the belief that marriage is between one man and one woman. My duties as governor require that I follow the laws as interpreted by the courts and make a judgment as to the likelihood of a successful appeal.

“Throughout the debate on this important and meaningful issue, I have maintained that Commonwealth officials and agencies would follow the provisions of Pennsylvania’s marriage law unless or until a court says otherwise. The court has spoken, and I will ensure that my administration follows the provisions of Judge Jones’ order with respect for all parties,” he said.

The governor’s action was greeted with joy by those seeking to make same-sex marriage legal.

“Governor Corbett’s decision not to waste taxpayers’ money defending the indefensible denial of the freedom to marry even one day longer is the right decision for Pennsylvania, for families, and for the country — and one more big step forward to celebrate,” stated Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, a pro-gay marriage group.

“Pennsylvania is showing the country that when gay couples share in the freedom to marry, it’s joy, love, security, and happiness and a stronger community for everyone, and no one loses. And this latest decision by a Republican governor not to try to keep gay couples from marrying is additional proof that all of America is ready for the freedom to marry,” he stated.

Only two states in the nation — North and South Dakota — have no pending suits seeking to overturn state bans on same-sex marriage.

It had been three states, but four couples announced Wednesday that they are suing Montana over its constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The suit is being brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has aided in numerous such suits, including the one that eventually overturned Pennsylvania’s ban.

The Montana suit was filed in federal court in Great Falls. It alleges the state ban denies same-sex couples the freedom and dignity afforded to others living in Montana, and denies them the state and federal legal protections enjoyed by heterosexuals in marriage.

AFP Photo/Joel Saget

Arkansas Seeks Stay On Ruling Allowing Same-Sex Marriage

Arkansas Seeks Stay On Ruling Allowing Same-Sex Marriage

By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel on Monday asked the state’s top court to suspend a lower court ruling that struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriages.

The request for a stay was filed on Monday with the state Supreme Court, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office told the Los Angeles Times.

It is not yet known when the justices will rule on the state request, court spokeswoman Stephanie M. Harris told the Los Angeles Times.

While the issue is pending at the state’s top court, local county clerks are allowed to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On Monday, officials in Pulaski County, which includes Little Rock, began issuing marriage licenses.

The first same-sex marriage took place over the weekend after the state ban was struck down late Friday afternoon. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza ruled that a 2004 constitutional amendment and a 1997 law banning same-sex marriage were unconstitutional.

McDaniel, a Democrat, has said he supports same-sex marriage but will continue to defend the state ban because he believes it’s his duty to do so.

“We respect the Court’s decision, but, in keeping with the Attorney General’s obligation to defend the state constitution, we will appeal,” Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for the attorney general, said in a statement emailed on Monday. “Our office is focused on obtaining a stay. We have communicated with Association of Counties staff to help them formulate their advice to the county clerks, but we do not represent clerks. They are independently elected officials who will follow the advice of their own legal counsel and proceed as they see fit.”

In its court papers, the state notes that the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay to allow time for appeals in a Utah case where the ban on same-sex marriage was struck down. That stay, however, did not go into effect until hundreds of same-sex couples had married.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage while half a dozen others have some form of limited recognition, including of marriages in other jurisdictions. Federal courts have struck down same-sex bans in at least seven states, including Utah, where arguments have already taken place on the appeals level.

AFP Photo/Justin Sullivan

United Church Of Christ Sues Over North Carolina Ban On Same-Sex Marriage

United Church Of Christ Sues Over North Carolina Ban On Same-Sex Marriage

By Michael Gordon, The Charlotte Observer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A group of Charlotte-area ministers have helped launch the country’s first faith-based challenge to a same-sex marriage ban, claiming in a lawsuit filed Monday that North Carolina’s laws block them from practicing their religion.

The local religious leaders, who include a rabbi, are joined by colleagues from Asheville and Raleigh along with a national denomination, the United Church of Christ. All of them support the rights of same-sex couples to marry.

They say state prohibitions, including a constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2012, violate their First Amendment right of freedom of religion.

“The core protection of the First Amendment is that government may not regulate religious beliefs or take sides in religious controversies,” says Jonathan Martel, a Washington, D.C., attorney helping with the case.

“Marriage performed by clergy is a spiritual exercise and expression of faith essential to the values and continuity of the religion that government may regulate only where it has a compelling interest.”

The lawsuit was expected to be formally announced in 10:30 a.m. Monday press conference at Holy Covenant United Church of Christ. Church pastor Nancy Allison is one of the persons suing Attorney General Roy Cooper and other state officials, asking that the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina strike the laws down.

It becomes the 66th legal challenge to marriage bans now in the courts, three of them in North Carolina. But it is the first to attack same-sex marriage bans on religious grounds, said Charlotte attorney Jake Sussman, lead counsel for the group.

It also marks the first time an entire denomination has joined the marriage battle. UCC, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, has more than 1.1 million members and 5,100 local churches. North Carolina is home to more than 24,000 members and 155 churches, including Holy Covenant in Charlotte and Trinity Reformed in Concord.

Joining the denomination and clergy as plaintiffs are same-sex couples in Charlotte, Asheville, Concord and Huntersville. They say the state laws violate their equal-protection and due-process rights under the 14th Amendment.

Betty Mack and Carol Taylor of Asheville have been in a committed relationship for 41 years, the lawsuit says. The women, both in their 70s, say they want to be married in their Unitarian Universalist church, and that they have requested a license but have been turned down.

State law says it is a misdemeanor crime for ministers to perform a marriage ceremony without having a marriage license for a couple.

The suit borrows heavily from U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion last summer to strike down the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, which legally limited marriage to a man and a woman.

Kennedy wrote that marriage bans stigmatize couples, their families and their children. The new suit claims that houses of worship who want to marry the couples are lumped into that lower status.

“By denying same-sex couples the right to marry and prohibiting religious denominations even from performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples, the State of North Carolina stigmatizes same-sex couples, as well as the religious institutions and clergy that believe in equal rights,” the suit says.

North Carolina’s 2012 constitutional ban, widely known as “Amendment One,” passed with 61 percent of the vote. The margin of victory was largely driven by social conservatives and conservative Christians. Many of them believe the Bible says marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman.

The clergy and couples filing the new lawsuit say it is not their goal “to compel other faiths to conform to their religious beliefs.” Instead, they say they want “to assert their right to freely perform religious services and ceremonies consistent with their beliefs and practices, and to extend the equal protection of the laws to all of God’s children.”

North Carolina’s other two legal challenges to the state’s marriage laws have been filed in federal court in Greensboro. That means those cases cannot be consolidated with the complaint filed in Charlotte on Monday.

In the end, all three may take a back seat to a Virginia case scheduled to go before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in two weeks.

The three-judge panel will hear the appeal of a lower court ruling that struck down Virginia’s marriage ban as unconstitutional. If the judges let that decision stand, as many legal experts expect them to do, they could also erase marriage bans in West Virginia and the Carolinas, which are part of the Judicial Fourth Circuit. A ruling is expected by fall.

Cooper, a target of the Greensboro suits as well, has asked the court to delay one of those cases given how soon the Fourth Circuit is expected to rule. He may follow the same strategy with the new case in Charlotte.

AFP Photo/Joel Saget