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The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Gay Marriage Ban Lifted in 5 States

The Supreme Court declined review on the three cases contesting same-sex marriage Monday, thus deferring to the decisions of the lower circuit courts and clearing the way for legalization of gay marriage. Now legalized in Virginia, Utah, Indiana, Wisconsin and Oklahoma, same-sex marriage is currently permitted in 30 states in the United States, with more expected to follow suit.

“This is an amazing victory for loving and committed same-sex couples in these states who now have the freedom and recognition that they deserve,” American Civil Liberties Union Director James Esseks wrote in a press release.

The ACLU acted as co-counsel in three of the five cases.

With the fourth, seventh and 10th circuits legalizing same-sex marriage, same-sex couples in other states within those circuits can expect to be able to marry within the coming month.

After the circuit courts ruled that the states’ same-sex marriage ban was discriminatory, and thus unconstitutional, the appeals went up to the Supreme Court. In the case of Virginia, in the Fourth Circuit, all of the states in Virginia’s circuit, which also includes Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia, will be subject to the law. Gay marriage was legalized in Maryland on Jan. 1, 2013, but those remaining three states in the Fourth Circuit have yet to see a ruling.

“It shouldn’t be long for someone to go to court and say, ‘Look, the Fourth Circuit has ruled this way, this state is in the Fourth Circuit, therefore you have to start allowing gay couples to marry,’” said Nan Hunter, a Georgetown University Law Center professor specializing in sexuality in the law. “So I think different states will move at different speeds, and some states may resist it very strongly, but I think that will happen in all six states, the indirectly affected states, within the next month or so.”

Campbell James (SFS ’17), media manager and historian of GU Pride, was hopeful that this ruling would spark a trend of same-sex marriage legalization across the country.

“We’re just really happy to see that a lot of LGBTQ people now have the opportunity to get married in a lot of states that I personally wouldn’t have imagined being in the first half of marriage equality in the country. I think it just sets a really exciting precedent for the coming months, the close future, eventually for all 50 states, to perform, recognize, allow same-sex marriage,” he said.

Esseks was also optimistic about the future.

“Ultimately, it means that we will soon see marriage in a lot more states. The Supreme Court’s action this morning sends an unmistakable signal that the nine justices are comfortable with the lower court decisions in favor of marriage, and we think that lower courts will read that loud and clear,” Esseks wrote.

Hunter said that she thought if the court had decided to rule, the right of same-sex couples to marry would have been upheld, but that the court most likely declined to rule to avoid making a sweeping decision that would affect so many U.S. citizens at once.

“I think the justices who support gay marriage think that they would win if the case were decided right now, but they also believe that the country is changing, and they can let these lower court decisions change one part of the country at a time, and let more people get used to the idea, before they have to announce a rule that would control the entire country,” Hunter said.

She added that she had not expected the courts to decline to rule. Instead, she said she thought the court would either grant certiorari, meaning to take a case and make a decision, or let the case sit.

“I didn’t expect them to do this. I expected them to either accept cert. or to deny cert., and then wait and see what happened with the next couple of circuits,” she said. “So I was surprised that they went ahead and—because they could have just kept those cases pending. It’s quite telling to me because what they did was —the effect of what they did was to allow marriages to go forward in those initial five and, ultimately, 11 states.”

James praised the Supreme Court for deferring to the lower circuit courts to decide this issue.

“I’ve always considered marriage a state issue, so I think it makes me happy that the Supreme Court has decided to uphold these courts rulings, and I feel like that shows support for the lower courts and these lower appellate judges and their abilities to make sound constitutional decisions,” James said.

As for the remaining U.S. circuits that have yet to legalize same-sex marriage, they will have the ability to make their own rulings. Hunter explained that if one or more of those circuits were to decide that the gay marriage ban is constitutional, that will cause a circuit split and the Supreme Court will be forced to issue a ruling on the case to resolve the circuit split.

If the remaining undecided courts independently rule that the marriage exclusion law is unconstitutional, however, the Supreme Court would never need to rule specifically on this issue.

“I think that this court is very clearly ducking this issue, at least for the time being,” Hunter said. “If it turns out hat the remaining three circuits also rule that marriage exclusion laws are unconstitutional, so that the whole country, bit by bit over time, has been covered, then I think it’s quite possible that the Supreme Court will not rule specifically on this question.”

This is not the Supreme Court’s first move that would pave the way for same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage last year when it voted to strike down part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which denied benefits to same-sex married couples who were legally allowed to marry in their states.

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