New Mexico legalizes same-sex marriage; Utah's district court rules SSM ban "unconstitutional."

[RTS CNG Command]

In the span of two days, the LGBT has celebrated two gigantic victories, one of them permanent.

 

The permanent ruling is New Mexico becoming the seventeenth state to legalize same-sex marriage on Thursday.

 

The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously affirmed on Thursday the right of same-sex partners to marry in the state, reasoning that the “protections and responsibilities that result from the marital relationship shall apply equally” to them and to opposite-sex couples.

 

With the ruling, which takes effect immediately, New Mexico becomes one of 17 states and the District of Columbia to permit same-sex marriage. Thirty-three states limit marriage to opposite-sex couples. “Today’s decision is a powerful affirmation that same-sex couples are equal members of New Mexico’s diverse culture and must be given the same legal protections and respect as other families,” Shannon Price Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which joined the American Civil Liberties Union to bring the case to court, said in a statement.

 

In a written opinion, the court’s five justices agreed that marriage rights for same-sex couples are guaranteed under the equal-protection clause of the New Mexico Constitution, amended in 1972 to state that “equality of rights under law shall not be denied on account of the sex of any person.”

Link.

 

This was a long time coming for the LGBT in New Mexico. Throughout America, New Mexico was the only state to not allow or ban sane-sex marriage, a loophole that was taken advantage of by several counties as they gave out state licenses.

 

And in the state of New Mexico, the state Supreme Court's ruling is final.

 

———

 

And the other one happened the next day in Utah. The district court in Salt Lake City ruled Utah's state amendment banning same-sex marriage (a law since 2004) unconstitutional.

 

 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal judge struck down Utah's same-sex marriage ban Friday in a decision that brings a nationwide shift toward allowing gay marriage to a conservative state where the Mormon church has long been against it.

 

The Salt Lake County clerk's office started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Deputy Clerk Dahnelle Burton-Lee said the district attorney authorized her office to begin issuing the licenses but she couldn't immediately say how many have been issued so far.

 

Just hours earlier, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby issued a 53-page ruling saying Utah's law passed by voters in 2004 violates gay and lesbian couples' rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

 

Shelby said the state failed to show that allowing same-sex marriages would affect opposite-sex marriages in any way.

 

"In the absence of such evidence, the State's unsupported fears and speculations are insufficient to justify the State's refusal to dignify the family relationships of its gay and lesbian citizens," Shelby wrote.

 

The Utah attorney general's office said it would issue a statement on the ruling later.

 

The ruling comes the same week New Mexico's highest court legalized gay marriage after declaring it unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. A new law passed in Hawaii last month now allows gay couples to marry there.

Link.

 

Of all the states to rule a same-sex-marriage ban unconstitutional and perhaps legalize same-sex marriage, Utah is one of the last I expected. It's one of the most socially conservative states and home of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who staunchly campaigned against same-sex marriage in several states, including California.

 

Although the governor plans to appeal, this sends a strong message to all states, especially ones that banned gay marriage (via state amendment) and ones with an extremely religiously conservative background like Utah. With this ruling, if your state has a law or amendment banning same-sex marriage (a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause), you may get your illegal law struck down. IIRC, this is the very first state to have an amendment banning gay marriage overturned, a big first step in the right direction.

 

Personally, I hope the appeal gets rejected.

[Turbo19]

Great to see both Utah and New Mexico leading by example.

[Tokkemon]

Super. Judges overriding voter's referendums. Very dangerous. Very dangerous indeed.

[RTS CNG Command]

Super. Judges overriding voter's referendums. Very dangerous. Very dangerous indeed.

1. Just because it was voted in overwhelmingly in 2004 doesn't mean the ban of same-sex marriage has as strong a support now. In many states, the support of same-sex marriage has exponentially grown. (Utah's support has grown, but it's still overwhelmingly against SSM, about twenty-eight percent now compared to around ten percent in the 1990s. But the opposition for legal recognition has dropped significantly from fifty-four percent in 2004 to twnety-nine percent nearly two years ago.)

 

2. The popular decision doesn't mean it's the legal decision. The state amendment violates the Equal Protection Clause, and it shouldn't have been passed to start with. The judge saw this and overturned the ban, even though SSM-support in Utah is very small. If the overturn holds up, Utah will be the most conservative state to legalize same-sex marriage.

[RTS CNG Command]

After the Federal District Court in Utah overturned Utah's unconstitutional ban on same-sex marriage (both the law and amendment), the state filed an appeal to stay the marriages.

 

Today, Appeals Court denied the emergency stay without prejudice.