US

Circuit Court Upholds State Ban On Gay Marriage

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A federal appeals court in Cincinnati upheld the right of the states to ban gay marriage on Thursday.

The decision creates a split between other circuit court rulings, which will likely result in the Supreme Court taking the case. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld a state ban on gay marriage, reversing lower-court decisions in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, which had found the restrictions to be unconstitutional. The Sixth Circuit is the first court to do so.

In the 2-to-1 decision, Judge Jeffrey Sutton ruled that it was preferable to allow states — not courts — to decide the issue of gay marriage.

“When the courts do not let the people resolve new social issues like this one, they perpetuate the idea that the heroes in these change events are judges and lawyers,” Sutton wrote. “Better in this instance, we think, to allow change through the customary political processes, in which the people, gay and straight alike, become the heroes of their own stories by meeting each other not as adversaries in a court system but as fellow citizens seeking to resolve a new social issue in a fair-minded way.”

In October, the Supreme Court turned down the opportunity to take up the question of gay marriage. At that point, all circuit courts which had ruled on the question had decided that state bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional. The Sixth Circuit’s decision creates a circuit court split — which will almost certainly result in the Supreme Court taking up the question itself.

Judge Sutton, who wrote the majority opinion, decided that marriage was a question better left to legislators and voters, rather than the court system — an opinion which those in favor of judicial restraint will likely support.

“All seek dignity and respect, the same dignity and respect given to marriages between opposite-sex couples,” Sutton wrote of the lawsuits which argue against state-wide bans on gay marriage. “And all come down to the same question: Who decides? Is this a matter that the National Constitution commits to resolution by the federal courts or leaves to the less expedient, but usually reliable, work of the state democratic process?”

The result of the case is that gay marriage bans in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee are back in place — and that the Supreme Court will likely be pushed to take up the case of gay marriage themselves.

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