Today, U.S. District Judge Timothy Black struck down part of a constitutional amendment in Ohio that denies gay couples the freedom to marry and withholds legal respect for gay couples who have gotten married. He ordered the state to treat couples married elsewhere like any other couples who marry out of state — as married.
The Washington Blade reported that in a 45-page decision, U.S. District Judge Timothy Black determined the Ohio law barring recognition of out-of-state same-sex weddings violates protections under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“The record before the court, which includes the judicially-noticed record in Obergefell, is staggeringly devoid of any legitimate justification for the state’s ongoing arbitrary discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and, therefore, Ohio’s marriage recognition bans are facially unconstitutional and unenforceable under any circumstances,” Black writes.
In his decision, Black invokes language in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, saying the court’s responsibility to provide protections under the U.S. Constitution “is never more pressing than when the fundamental rights of some minority of citizens are impacted by the legislative power of the majority.”
“When a state effectively terminates the marriage of a same-sex couple married in another jurisdiction by refusing to recognize the marriage, that state unlawfully intrudes into the realm of private marital, family, and intimate relations specifically protected by the Supreme Court,” Black writes.
The ruling was handed down by the same judge who determined in the case of Obergefell v. Wymyslo that Ohio must recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages for the purposes of death certificates.
Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, released the following statement on the ruling, “Couples who are married should be treated as married no matter where they are in the country, including Ohio. Couples should not have to play ‘now you’re married, now you’re not’ as they travel, work, move, or return home. This is a good day for families and businesses in Ohio, and a good day for the Constitution and America.”
