US judges rule against same-sex marriage ban

AN AMERICAN appeal court has found California’s gay marriage ban unconstitutional in a case that is likely to lead to a showdown on the issue in the US Supreme Court.

The 2-1 decision yesterday from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals featured two judges appointed by Democrats ruling against the ban, while a Republican-appointed judge dissented, reflecting a left-right split on the issue between liberal opinion and social conservatives.

California joined the vast majority of US states in outlawing same-sex marriage in 2008, when voters passed the ban known as Proposition 8.

Two gay couples responded by filing the legal challenge currently making its way through the federal courts.

A federal judge in San Francisco struck down Proposition 8 in 2010, and gay marriage opponents appealed that ruling. Opponents and supporters of same-sex marriage both have said they are ready to appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court.

In the ruling yesterday, Judge Stephen Reinhardt emphasised the court was not deciding the broader question of whether marriage was a fundamental right for same sex couples as well as heterosexuals.

Rather, the judges focused on the unique circumstances of Prop 8 in California.

“Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable,” Judge Reinhardt wrote, “it requires there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently.”

“There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted,” Judge Reinhardt wrote.