Federal Judge Strikes Down Utah's Gay Marriage Ban

In a surprising but welcomed move, a federal judge has struck down Utah's gay marriage ban ruling that the U.S. Constitution requires the same equal protection and due process rights for same-sex individuals to marry the person of their choice that are given to heterosexual individuals. Expect howling and spittle erupts from the Christofascists and their Mormon cousins.  Simply put, religion has no place in the civil laws governing marriage and while knuckle dragging, bigoted individuals and ignorance embracing denominations are free to do whatever they want within their houses of worship, they should have zero influence on the civil marriage laws.  In his ruling, Judge Shelby rightly found that the motivation of the ban on gay marriage was aimed at demeaning gays and that the ban had no reasonable basis.  The full opinion can be found here.  Sadly, Utah's governor and attorney general support the dangerous belief that the majority should be able to deny rights to minorities.  In contrast, Salt Lake City Mayor Becker began performing marriages immediately.  Here are highlights from the Salt Lake Tribune:

A federal judge in Utah on Friday struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, saying the U.S. Constitution offers the same equal protection and due process rights to same-sex individuals to marry the person of their choice that it gives heterosexual individuals. 

"The state’s current laws deny its gay and lesbian citizens their fundamental right to marry and, in so doing, demean the dignity of these same-sex couples for no rational reason," wrote U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby in the 53-page decision. "Accordingly, the court finds that these laws are unconstitutional."

 

In the ruling, Shelby enjoined the state from enforcing two different statutes that ban same-sex marriage as well as Amendment 3 to the state’s constitution, approved by Utah voters in 2004.

As news of the ruling broke, hundreds of people descended on county clerk offices around the state to request marriage licenses. At the Salt Lake County Clerk’s Office, a First Baptist pastor was on hand to conduct wedding ceremonies.

Hours later, the Utah attorney general’s office appealed the decision to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver and also filed a motion asking Shelby to stay the ruling while it seeks to defend Utah’s Amendment 3.   "The federal district court’s ruling that same-sex marriage is a fundamental right has never been established in any previous case in the 10th Circuit," it said.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert released a statement that said he was "very disappointed an activist federal judge is attempting to override the will of the people of Utah" and said he would work with Acting Attorney General Brian L. Tarbet "to determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah."

The ruling is the first federal decision on a state law banning same-sex marriages or denying recognition of legal same-sex marriages since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision this summer that struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). 

The Utah judge ruled just 16 days after he heard arguments in the case and well before his self-imposed deadline to render a decision by Jan. 7, when the next hearing in the matter was to be held, relying on extensive briefs filed in the case by both sides.