WA Supreme Court Upholds State Marriage Law

Posted on July 26, 2006

Great news from the state of Washington. Another “progressive court” applies common sense and the law (novel concept in the judiciary these days). Strong opinion and concurrence, big win.

Check out this link to Fox

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The state Supreme Court upheld a ban on gay marriage Wednesday, saying lawmakers have the power to restrict marriage to unions between a man and woman. The 5-4 decision disappointed gay marriage advocates and left Massachusetts as the only state that grants full marriage rights to gay couples.

The decision was the latest in a series of significant court rulings favoring gay marriage opponents. New York’s high court dealt gay couples another blow earlier this month when it ruled that a state law limiting marriage to between a man and a woman was constitutional.

In the Washington decision, the court overruled two lower courts that had found the state’s 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which limits marriage to opposite-sex couples, violated the state constitution and its Equal Rights Amendment.

Forty-five states have laws banning gay marriage or limiting marriage to between a man and a woman. Congress recently rebuffed a move to get a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

In other recent rulings on the issue, courts reinstated voter-approved bans on gay marriage in Nebraska and Georgia, and Tennessee’s Supreme Court ruled that voters there should have a say on allowing gay marriage.

Massachusetts’ high court — the same court that issued the historic ruling that has allowed more than 8,000 same-sex couples since 2004 to marry in that state — ruled a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage could go on the ballot if approved by the Legislature.

“This is more than we could have imagined,” said Jon Russell, field director for the conservative Faith and Freedom Network, which participated in the case. “We are shocked, and pleasantly shocked. We were prepared for the other direction.”