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Wash. Court to Rule on Gay Marriage Law
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(AP) The state Supreme Court announced it would issue a long-awaited ruling Wednesday in a case that could make Washington only the second state to allow gay marriage. The brief announcement gave no indication of which way the high court would lean. If it overturns the state’s 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, Washington would join Massachusetts as the only states to allow gay couples to marry, but unlike Massachusetts, Washington’s marriage licenses don’t require recipients to live in the state. Observers saw three possible outcomes: The court could uphold the gay marriage ban; it could overturn the ban and institute its own remedy; or it could find the ban illegal and ask the Legislature to provide a solution. Lawmakers are not scheduled to return to the Capitol until January. The 38 plaintiffs in the case _ 19 gay and lesbian couples seeking to marry _ challenged the constitutionality of the 1998 law, which limits marriage to heterosexual couples. Judges in King and Thurston counties overturned the law in 2004, citing the state constitution’s “privileges and immunities” section. The state appealed, and the cases were consolidated for Supreme Court review. In their arguments before the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said the gay marriage ban violates a constitutional prohibition against granting privileges to one group of citizens but not another. They also argued the ban violated the state’s Equal Rights Amendment. Attorneys defending the marriage law said the state has a legitimate interest in regulating relationships that produce children. The Washington court’s decision is just the latest in a series of significant court rulings on the issue in recent weeks, most falling in favor of opponents. Courts reinstated voter-approved bans on gay marriage in Nebraska and Georgia earlier this month. Tennessee’s Supreme Court ruled that voters there should have a say on allowing gay marriage. Massachusetts’ high court _ the same court that issued the historic ruling that has allowed more than 8,000 same-sex couples since 2004 to marry in that state _ ruled a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage could go on the ballot if approved by the Legislature. In Connecticut, a judge found gay and lesbian couples had not been harmed by that state’s decision to grant them civil unions but not marriage. Vermont also allows civil unions that confer the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples. |
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