Wash. court upholds gay marriage ban
CURT WOODWARD
Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. - The Washington Supreme Court upheld the state's ban on marriage for same-sex couples Wednesday, dealing the gay rights movement its second major defeat in less than a month in a liberal-leaning state that had been regarded as a promising battleground.
Massachusetts is still the only state that allows same-sex couples to wed.
In a 5-4 decision, the court left any action on Washington state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act to the Legislature or the ballot initiative process.
I haven't gotten through all the opinions yet, but they can be found here.
From what I've seen so far, it looks like the Washington court did the same thing as the New York Court of Appeals did; namely, they punted and said it's up to the state legislature to legalize gay marriage.
I suppose that's all well and good; eventually, I'm confident state legislatures will come around. However, the only problem is that when left to their own devices, the state legislatures used to pass laws banning interracial marriage, too. That's when the U.S. Supreme Court held that the right to marry was so fundamental that it was subject to the 14th Amendment's rights of equal protection.
Something tells me when I read the opinion, I'll come across the determination that while "regular" marriage is subject to "strict scrutiny" analysis, gay marriage isn't.
Why, I don't know. Logic has nothing to do with it.
More later.
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