WASHINGTON (ABP) — For the first time, a federal judge has overturned a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
On May 12, U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon of Nebraska said that state's ban on gay marriage and other same-sex legal partnerships violates several provisions of the federal Constitution.
Bataillon said the ban is so broadly written as to prohibit not only gay marriage, but also other legal arrangements and protections between gay couples and other unmarried people.
The amendment goes “far beyond merely defining marriage as between a man and a woman,” the judge wrote, adding its “broad proscriptions could also interfere with or prevent arrangements between potential adoptive or foster parents and children, related persons living together, and people sharing custody of children, as well as gay individuals.”
Bataillon also said the amendment barred gay couples from participating in “an almost limitless number of transactions and endeavors that constitute ordinary civil life in a free society” and limited gay couples' ability to petition the government and “to participate in the political process” to advocate on behalf of their rights.
Therefore, he concluded, the amendment violates both the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment.
Although 39 other states have laws banning gay marriage, Nebraska's amendment was one of the most restrictive. Passed in 2000, it prohibited any kind of legal recognition for same-sex couples in the state and banned state agencies from offering health care and other benefits to the domestic partners of their employees.
Groups opposed to gay marriage said the ruling was another illustration of the need for a federal constitutional amendment banning the practice. Although a similar amendment lost a Senate procedural vote last year, a new version of the Marriage Protection Amendment is currently pending in both houses of Congress.
“This historic national debate will come down to a race between AFM's Marriage Protection Amendment and the American courts,” said Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage, in a statement. “Today's federal ruling makes it all the more clear that AFM's marriage amendment is the only hope for the deeply held values of the vast majority of Americans — of every race, color and creed — to be protected under our laws.”
Gay marriage has been a prominent topic since 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state's Constitution required officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The state became the first jurisdiction in the United States with legalized gay marriage on May 17, 2004, when the court's decision went into effect.
Gay-rights proponents, meanwhile, pointed out the recent Nebraska decision did not legalize gay marriage or any other arrangement in the state.
“The judge was clear that states can't enact amendments that bar gay people from the democratic process,” said Amy Miller of the American Civil Liberties Union, according to a press release. “Committed same-sex couples need the same protections for their families that married couples enjoy, and we're hopeful that the legislature will take up this issue soon. This decision doesn't mean that gay people can marry, get a civil union or a domestic partnership, but it guarantees gay people the right to lobby their state law makers for those protections.”
ACLU and the national gay-rights group Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit that triggered Bataillon's decision on behalf of three Nebraska organizations.
The case is Citizens for Equal Protection, Inc., et al. vs. Attorney General Jon Bruning, et al. The attorney general has said he will appeal the ruling.