FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN KENTUCKY’S SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BAN

From: The Gaily Grind

U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II has struck down Kentucky’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Today’s ruling has been temporarily put on hold because it will be appealed, meaning same-sex couples can’t begin applying for marriage licenses.

According to FreedomToMarry:

Previously, Judge Heyburn struck down the portion of the marriage ban in Kentucky that denies respect to same-sex couples who legally married in other states. Shortly after that ruling (in Love v. Beshear) in February 2014, two unmarried couples intervened in the case, which was retitled Love v. Beshear.

The ruling reads:

Sometimes, by upholding equal rights for a few, courts necessarily must require others to forebear some prior conduct or restrain some personal instinct. Here, that would not seem to be the case. Assuring equal protection for same-sex couples does not diminish the freedom of others to any degree. Thus, same-sex couples’ right to marry seems to be a uniquely “free” constitutional right. Hopefully, even those opposed to or uncertain about same-sex marriage will see it that way in the future.

The Court’s holding today is consistent with Bourke, although it requires different relief. The ability to marry in one’s state is arguably much more meaningful, to those on both sides of the debate, than the recognition of a marriage performed in another jurisdiction. But it is for that very reason that the Court is all the more confident in its ruling today.

Judge Heyburn also dismantled the argument by the defendants asserted in their briefs, that allowing same-sex couples to marry in Kentucky will lower the birth rates in the state. Judge Heyburn wrote:

Perhaps recognizing that procreation-based arguments have not succeeded in any court post-Windsor, Defendant adds a disingenuous twist to the argument: Traditional marriages contribute to a stable birth rate which, in turn, ensures the state’s long-term economic stability.

These arguments are not those of serious people. Excluding same-sex couples from marriage does not change the number of heterosexual couples who choose to get married, the number who choose to have children, or the number of children they have.