PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pennsylvania’s ban on gay marriage has been overturned by a federal judge in a decision that makes same-sex matrimony legal throughout the Northeast.
U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III’s decision Tuesday is a victory for 11 couples, a widow and one of the couples’ two teenage daughters who filed the first challenge to the law. Gov. Tom Corbett’s office had defended the law after Attorney General Kathleen Kane called it unconstitutional and refused to defend it.
Pennsylvania was the last remaining state in the Northeast to outlaw gay marriage.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the law inflicts harm on same-sex couples and their children by depriving them of the legal protections and tax benefits afforded to married couples.
An appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is likely.
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That’s 0 for 13 since the Windsor decision, Reichwing Bigot Brigade. God, apparently, does not hate fags. But he might hate you.
See, the thing is, Windsor doesn’t actually leave room for any other interpretation. The Supreme Court didn’t quite go there, but Scalia was right when he said these rulings would follow. (As they should, which was not his point, but nonetheless).
When Kennedy couched his opinion in Equal Protection language, the die was cast. Now we’re facing Full Faith and Credit issues too, which will only accelerate the universality of marriage equality.
Yes! Took us a while but we got there.
The fun one is that Judge Jones was nominated by George W. Bush at the behest of…then Senator Rick Santorum!