The dominoes are falling at an amazing rate. Idaho has capitulated to the ruling ,of the 9th Circuit and late today a federal court in Charlotte struck down North Carolina's ban on same sex marriage (e.g. Amendment 1), ending a brief flow of same sex couples to Virginia to marry. Frankly, I get almost teary eyed knowing that now when the husband and I go down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, our marriage will be recognized and valid. The Charlotte Observer repots on today's events. Here are highlights:
Same-sex marriage became legal in North Carolina on Friday, with the federal judge ordering the state to immediately set aside its ban.
With a stroke of his pen in a Charlotte-based lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn of Asheville struck down the state’s laws restricting marriage to a man and a woman.
In doing so, he erased Amendment One, the country’s last voter-approved, constitutional marriage ban, and a cultural, spiritual and political lightning rod in North Carolina.
The attorney for Republican legislative leaders trying a last-ditch effort to preserve the ban said Friday night that an appeal is possible. But for now it appears limited to narrow grounds, and legal experts said it had little chance of success.
“We won!” said Charlotte lawyer Jake Sussman, lead attorney for a group of gay couples, religious leaders and other groups who argued that the state bans violated their freedom of religion and equal protection under the law.
Gov. Pat McCrory said the state would comply. “The administration is moving forward with the execution of the court’s ruling and will continue to do so unless otherwise notified by the courts,” he said.
Mecklenburg Register of Deeds David Granberry said he wedding licenses would be made available to gay couples on Monday morning, only because he didn’t have permission to stay open late Friday.
Elsewhere, the wedding march had already begun. In Raleigh, the county’s register of deeds issued her first same-sex wedding license at 5:44 p.m., and a ceremony quickly followed.
In Asheville and Greensboro, the county register of deeds offices stayed open hours past closing time to handle the rush of same-sex couples.
[Judge] Cogburn, a former federal prosecutor appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, did not wait. First he denied the Republican leaders’ motion to intervene. Minutes later, he filed his final order, saying that the state’s ban violated the plaintiffs’ 14th Amendment rights of equal protection under law. In doing so, the state’s newest marriage lawsuit, which was filed in April, became the first to render a decision.
Cogburn’s ruling capped off a 48-hour paper chase of motions and counter motions, arguments and rebuttals. Much of it was part of a Republican effort to delay what appeared inevitable Monday, when the Supreme Court announced it would not review lower court marriage rulings in five states.
One of those decisions, which struck down a same-sex marriage ban in Virginia, came from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. It has jurisdiction over the Carolinas. The Supreme Court’s decision freed up the lawsuits that had been put on hold until the high court made its thinking known. Yet [GOP House Speaker Thom] Tillis, who’s running for the U.S. Senate, and Berger pushed on.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who has been following North Carolina’s marriage fight, said the legislators’ chances of success are diminished because they stayed out of the two-year fight until the end.
“The last-minute pleas are less persuasive,” Tobias said. “Courts do give some deference to elected officials. But it is difficult to see what they are doing here except wasting time, money and energy for partisan political purposes that will lead nowhere.”
Congratulations to LGBT North Carolinians. I sincerely ope that the efforts of Republican legislators (especially Tillis) to shameless prostitute themselves to Christofascists will be duly noted by decent, moral people - a group that excludes Christofascists - and that they will bear a price at the polls.
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