For a few months at least, the epicenter of the nationwide legal debate over gay marriage will reside in Maryland.
The state's highest court was to hear oral arguments Monday, Dec. 4, in a case that could make the Old Line State the second in America to legalize gay marriage. Similar cases are pending before the California and Connecticut Supreme Courts, although neither body has decided whether it will take up the cases.
Gay marriage supporters in Maryland won on the trial court level in January, when Judge M. Brooke Murdock ruled that a 1973 law defining marriage as being between one man and one woman violates the Maryland constitution's Equal Rights Amendment. She ordered gay marriage to be legalized, although her ruling was stayed pending an emergency appeal to the Maryland Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state.
Supporters of gay marriage hope the Maryland court ends a streak of losses. This year, supreme courts in New York, Washington state and New Jersey ruled that there is no constitutional right to gay marriage.
Following Murdock's ruling, supporters of natural, traditional marriage introduced a constitutional marriage amendment in the legislature, although Democrats blocked it and prevented it from getting a floor vote in the House of Delegates, The Gazette reported.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of nine homosexual couples.