Pennsylvania's Federal Court Strikes Down Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
Thursday, March 28, 2024
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At this point, we're used to seeing pretty strong opinions against these bans from the district courts. But Jones's opinion has the same-sex marriage progress gas pedal to the floor. In his opinion, Jones concluded:  The issue we resolve today is a divisive one. Some of our citizens are made deeply uncomfortable by the notion of same-sex marriage. However, that same-sex marriage causes discomfort in some does not make its prohibition constitutional. Nor can past tradition trump the bedrock constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection. Were that not so, ours would still be a racially segregated nation according to the now rightfully discarded doctrine of "separate but equal..." In the sixty years since Brown was decided, "separate has thankfully faded into history, and only "equal" remains. Similarly, in future generations, the label "same sex marriage" will be abandoned, to be replaced simply by "marriage."  We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history.

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But "hope" is, perhaps, too mild a word for the feeling among same-sex marriage advocates right now. There's also a certain level of confidence as this decision is the 14th straight win in the federal courts for same-sex marriage rights since the Supreme Court's Windsor decision in June, 2013.  Oregon's voter-approved ban was overturned by a federal judge on May 20, 2014, in a decision that seems likely to permanently grant marriage rights to the state's same-sex couples for the first time in 10 years. The decision was issued without a stay, meaning that couples are already marrying in the state. And, because the state's Attorney General and Governor aren't going to defend the law, it's almost certain that it won't end up back in the courts on appeal. (One anti-gay group, the National Organization for Marriage, is trying to get standing to defend the law, but their requests have so far been denied).

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As of May 22, 2014, there are just four states with unchallenged bans in place: Montana, North and South Dakota, and Mississippi. There are 18 court challenges to existing bans making their way through the courts, and another 9 states with bans that were recently overturned in the courts, and are on appeal. That's a lot of cases on deck, with a handful — a case in Utah, a challenge to Oklahoma's ban, for instance — possibly bound for the Supreme Court.

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Although Pennsylvania's Attorney General Kathleen Kane has refused to defend the state ban against legal challenges, members of the administration of Governor Tom Corbett are named as defendants in the suit. May 22, 2014 decision comes after both Corbett's administration and the couples challenging the ban asked for summary judgement, in order to avoid going to trial.

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