Virginia gay marriage ban overturned by US judge

A federal judge last night declared that Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, in the strongest legal reversal yet of restrictive marriage amendments that exist throughout the South.

"Our Constitution declares that 'all men' are created equal," wrote Judge Arenda Wright Allen of US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in Norfolk.

“Surely this means all of us.” The ruling, which overturned a constitutional amendment adopted by Virginia voters in 2006 as well as previous laws, also said that Virginia must respect same-sex marriages that were carried out legally in other states.

But opponents of same-sex marriage have vowed to appeal the decision to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, and Wright Allen stayed the execution of the ruling pending the appeal.

This week, a federal judge in Kentucky ruled that the state must honor same-sex marriages legally performed in other states, but the ruling did not address Kentucky’s own ban on such marriages.

If the Court of Appeals upholds the decision, the repercussions in the South could be wide. Similar amendments limiting marriage to a man and a woman would most likely be voided in other states of the 4th Circuit, including North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia. (Maryland approved same-sex marriage in 2012.)

But many legal experts believe that this case or another among the dozens being argued around the country will eventually be taken up by the US Supreme Court.

Last year, as it overturned a part of the Defense of Marriage Act, the Supreme Court required the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages from states where they are legal, and a majority of justices agreed that discrimination against gay and lesbian couples was unjustified and stigmatized their children. In another decision, it allowed a reversal of California’s ban on same-sex marriage to stand on technical grounds.

But so far, the justices have not decided the basic issue raised by the new decision in Virginia and similar recent decisions by federal district courts in Utah and Oklahoma: whether any sound constitutional reason exists for a state to deny gay and lesbian couples an equal right to marry.

The challenge to Virginia's ban was argued by Theodore B Olson and David Boies, who successfully contested California's ban in 2010.

They argued the case on behalf of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, a private national group.

New York Times