Robert Dominic Ventre II
Staff Writer
U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen has deemed Virginia’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional as of Thursday evening, February 13.
In her ruling, the Eastern District of Virginia judge declared that, “Our Constitution declares that ‘all men’ are created equal. Surely this means all of us.” She went on to say, “While ever vigilant for the wisdom that can come from the voices of our voting public, our courts have never long tolerated the perpetuation of laws rooted in unlawful prejudice. One of the judiciary’s noblest endeavors is to scrutinize law that emerge from such roots.”
Newly-elected Virginia’s Democratic attorney general Mark Herring recently announced his refusal to uphold the gay marriage ban, paving the way for Virginia to become the second southern state in in the U.S. to have a ban on gay marriage overturned.
A passage from Allen’s ruling read as such:
“The Court finds Va. Const. Art. I, § 15-A, Va. Code §§ 20-45.2, 20-45.3, and any other Virginia law that bars same-sex marriage or prohibits Virginia’s recognition of lawful same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions unconstitutional. These laws deny Plaintiffs their rights to due process and equal protection guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Opposition from attorneys defending the ban claimed that marriage is a traditional institution, founded primarily in the interests of children as well as celebrating, “the diversity of the sexes,”.
As reported by TimesDispatch.com, Carl Tobias, a constitutional law professor from University of Richmond School of Law, had this to say regarding the ruling: “The ruling is groundbreaking for Virginia in some ways like Loving v. Virginia (the case that legalized interracial marriage), but we have a long way to go to the U.S. Supreme Court,”
Tobias went on to say: “It is bold in the sense that the Supreme Court precedent is unclear, but the Windsor case has language that can be read to allow same-sex marriage.”
There are 33 states remaining in the U.S that uphold laws barring gay marriage.
Stay tuned for more information on this groundbreaking story!
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