Tallahassee federal judge throws out Florida's ban on same-sex marriage

[shortsweetcynic]

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle is the fifth judge in six weeks to make the same finding
A Tallahassee federal judge ruled Thursday that Florida's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, the fifth judge in the past six weeks to do so

Comments

[squidger]

Which SCOTUS decision are you referring to? The Prop 8 case applied solely to California, and in that case, SCOTUS didn't rule on the merits, saying that the appellants (the supporters of Prop 8) didn't have standing. In Windsor, that case only applied to federal recognition of state marriage laws.

[shortsweetcynic]

i suppose it's both? please forgive my answer because i'll admit i haven't made the time to read about this in depth.

all i know is that after the rulings last year, state after state after state started overturning their own anti-gay-marriage amendments, and if proposition 8 is functionally the same thing as florida's amendment 2...would they hear (what looks to me like) the same case twice if it did end up going back to the SCOTUS? because i have no misconceptions that they'll probably end up doing just that if they can.

[squidger]

Marriage laws are defined by the states. There is no federal law about marriage. States are free to define marriage as however they want (why different states have different legal ages, different laws re: first cousin marriage) as long as those definitions are constitutional, both under that state's constitution and the US constitution. That's why a lot of states specifically amended their state constitutions to define marriage as between a man and a woman: if it's in the constitution, it cannot be "unconstitutional." However, the US constitution trumps state constitutions. So, even if states amended their own constitutions, if those amendments violate the US constitution's equal protection clause, they're not valid

[shortsweetcynic]

thank you for explaining this so well. that makes sense to me now. :)

[squidger]

Glad I could!