Sunday, December 29, 2013

Federal Judge Shelby's Ruling on Utah Gay Marriage in Conflict with United States v. Windsor

Federal Judge Robert Shelby on December 20, 2013 ruled that Utah's law on same sex marriage violates the U.S. Constitution (see: NYT: Federal Judge Rules That Same-Sex Marriage Is Legal in Utah):
...The court holds that Utah’s prohibition on same-sex marriage conflicts with the United States Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process under the law..
This ruling is in direct conflict with the following assertion by the U.S. Supreme Court in the recently settled  United States v. Windsor (emphasis added):
..(b) By seeking to injure the very class New York seeks to protect, DOMA violates basic due process and equal protection principles applicable to the Federal Government. The Constitution’s guarantee of equality “must at the very least mean that a bare congressional desire to harm a politically unpopular group cannot” justify disparate treatment of that group. Department of Agriculture v. Moreno, 413 U.S. 528, 534–535. DOMA cannot survive under these principles. Its unusual deviation from the tradition of recognizing and accepting state definitions of marriage operates to deprive same-sex couples of the benefits and responsibilities that come with federal recognition of their marriages...
Clearly the Supreme Court will now have to settle the conflict.  Either states have their own

  • "definitions of marriage" agreed on by that state's citizens or 
  • " prohibition on same-sex marriage conflicts with the United States Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process under the law"

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