One day after a Supreme Court decision lifted same-sex marriage bans in five states, another federal circuit court has struck down bans in two states. UPI/Kevin Dietsch |
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SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- One day after a Supreme Court decision lifted same-sex marriage bans in five states, another federal circuit court has struck down bans in two states.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the bans on gay marriage in Idaho and Nevada were unconstitutional because they treat people differently based on sexual orientation.
Judge Stephen Reinhardt, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, said neither state successfully argued it had a compelling interest in barring single-sex coupes from marrying.
"Idaho and Nevada's marriage laws, by preventing same-sex couples from marrying and refusing to recognize same-sex marriages celebrated elsewhere, impose profound legal, financial, social and psychic harms on numerous citizens of those states," he wrote in his 90-page ruling.
The states tried to argue that allowing gay couples to wed would devalue traditional marriage, and encourage out-of-wedlock births, logic Reinhardt called "crass and callous."
"We reject it out of hand," he wrote.
On Monday, the high court refused to hear seven petitions of appeal on rulings for three circuit courts. The decision not to hear the cases, all dealing with cases in which federal courts had ruled to strike down bans in five states -- Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Nevada -- essentially made gay marriage legal immediately in a total of 24 states and the District of Columbia.
In practice, the decision will likely invalidate bans in another six states -- Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming -- under the same three circuit courts.
Tuesday's decision in the 9th Circuit, which also has jurisdiction over Alaska, Arizona and Montana, where marriage equality is still banned, paves the way for the legal gay marriage in 35 states and D.C.
Latta v. Otter