Thursday, April 10, 2014

Judges seem Divided over Utah's Gay Marriage Case


Today, judges on a federal appeals court panel seemed to be divided on whether to uphold a lower court's ruling that stifled Utah's gay marriage ban. This case could change the course of things to come.

This is what I got from ABC News:
One of the three judges, Carlos F. Lucero, compared the state's argument that the ban should stand to the U.S. Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision that denied citizenship and constitutional protections to blacks before the Civil War.

"To argue that public policy can trump a declared constitutional right would be a remarkable proposition," Lucero said.

But Judge Paul J. Kelly Jr. suggested Utah does have the right to reaffirm what has been a centuries-long tradition of heterosexual marriage.

"You are just taking the position they are wrong on this. .... We'll just ignore what the people have decided and the Legislature has done," Kelly said.

The swing vote in the case appeared to be Judge Jerome A. Holmes, who had pointed questions for both sides. He at one point compared Utah's same-sex marriage ban to Virginia's ban on interracial marriages that was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1967.

But in addressing the plaintiffs' attorneys, Holmes said gay marriage is a new and novel concept. He challenged them to explain why the state's voters should be prevented from defining marriage the way they want.

The hearing comes after a remarkable winning streak for gay marriage supporters, who in the past nine months persuaded federal judges to strike down eight states' bans on gay marriage or on recognizing gay marriages from elsewhere.

Those rulings, including the Utah one under discussion Thursday and a similar one in Oklahoma that will be heard before the same panel next week, came after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act last summer. The high court found that the law violated gay couples' due process rights by preventing the federal government from recognizing their marriages.
More to come

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.