Federal Judge Strikes Down Kansas Same-Sex Marriage Ban

In a ruling that should have surprised no one - other than, of course, delusional Christofascists - a U.S. District Court has ruled that Kansas' same sex marriage ban is unconstitutional under the binding precedent of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling in Kitchen v. Herbert which the U.S. Supreme Court left undisturbed.  Indeed, the wonder is that the Court did not impose sanctions against the defenders of Kansas' unconstitutional bans who continued what can only be described as frivolous filings in the case after Kitchen was by default affirmed by the Supreme Court. Arguments that the federal court rulings do not trump any ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court are disingenuous at best and outright fraudulent at worse.   The full order of the Court can be found here.  Here are highlights from The Washington Blade (Note how the state GOP officials plan to continue to waste tax payer money):

In a 38-page decision, U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree, an Obama appointee, issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement on Kansas law prohibiting of marriage rights for same-sex couples. The injunction is warranted, Crabtree writes, because of legal precedent and because state officials defending the law haven’t made a sufficient case they would prevail in court.

“Because Kansas’ constitution and statutes indeed do what Kitchen forbids, the Court concludes that Kansas’ same-sex marriage ban violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution,” Crabtree writes. “Accordingly, the Court grants plaintiffs’ request for preliminary relief and and enters the injunction described at the end of this Order.

The litigation filed before the court was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas to compel the circuit to confirm to judicial precedent enacted the Tenth Circuit rulings against same-sex marriage bans in Utah and Oklahoma, which lie within the same circuit as Kansas. 

The decision comes on the heels of a hearing on Friday on the matter of issuing a preliminary injunction in the case. According to the Associated Press, the state urged the judge not to block the state from enforcing the ban until a decision from the Kansas Supreme Court, which is scheduled to hold hearings on a related case on Nov. 6, but the ACLU maintained further delay would harm same-sex couples in Kansas. At the conclusion of the hearing, Crabtree said he would decide whether to issue a preliminary injunction in the case “as quickly as we can.”

Kansas prohibition on marriage rights for same-sex couples, known as Kansas Proposed Amendment 1, was ratified at the ballot as part of the state constitution by 70 percent of the vote. Gov. Sam Brownback and Attorney General Derek Schmidt defended the law in court against litigation and campaigned on those efforts ahead of Election Day in Kansas.

In a statement, Schmidt pledged to appeal the decision on an expedited basis for an en banc hearing before the Tenth Circuit.