{"id":1704,"date":"2013-06-26T15:15:21","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T22:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/?p=1704"},"modified":"2019-11-23T22:26:37","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T05:26:37","slug":"u-s-supreme-court-rules-on-gay-marriage-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/26\/u-s-supreme-court-rules-on-gay-marriage-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Gay Marriage Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Supreme Court ruled today on two major gay marriage cases.\u00a0 In one, it found the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (&#8220;DOMA&#8221;) unconstitutional as violative of the Fifth Amendment.\u00a0 In the other, it let stand on procedural grounds a lower court&#8217;s ruling finding California&#8217;s &#8220;Prop. 8&#8221; to be unconstitutional.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>DOMA Case<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0DOMA was a federal law allowing the federal government to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages even if those marriages were entered into\u00a0properly in states where gay marriage is legal.\u00a0 In essence,\u00a0under\u00a0DOMA the federal government did not have to allow same-sex married couples the same federal benefits allowed to opposite-sex married couples.<\/p>\n<p>In the DOMA case, the Court found that defining marriage relationships is something to be left to the states&#8211;not to the federal government.\u00a0 Several states\u00a0have legalized\u00a0same-sex marriage.\u00a0 The Court ruled that once a state has decided to legalize same-sex marriage, there is no legitimate interest in treating a legally married same-sex couple from that state differently than a legally married heterosexual couple from that state.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the Court held that &#8220;DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment.&#8221; \u00a0The effect of this ruling is that same-sex couples married in states where gay marriage is legal will be entitled to the same federal benefits as heterosexual married couples.<\/p>\n<p>To read the complete opinion in the DOMA case, click here: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/12pdf\/12-307_g2bh.pdf\">http:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/12pdf\/12-307_g2bh.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Prop. 8 Case<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u00a0In the Prop. 8 case, the Court ruled as narrowly as it possibly could to achieve the result of\u00a0making gay marriage legal in California.\u00a0 In 2008,\u00a0California voters passed Prop. 8,\u00a0a\u00a0state constitutional amendment\u00a0defining marriage as being only between a man and a woman.\u00a0 Prop. 8 was challenged in federal court, and the State of California refused to defend it.\u00a0 The Prop. 8 proponents stepped in and defended Prop. 8.\u00a0 The federal district court found Prop. 8 to be unconstitutional, and the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed.\u00a0 The Prop. 8 proponents then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the Prop. 8 proponents lacked legal standing to appeal the federal district court&#8217;s ruling finding Prop. 8 to be unconstitutional.\u00a0 This ruling <strong>does not legalize gay marriage nationally.<\/strong>\u00a0 The Court did NOT rule that state laws and constitutional amendments passed by ballot initiative which limit marriage to one man and one woman are unconstitutional.\u00a0 It did not decide the case on its merits at all.\u00a0 The Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling\u00a0is very narrow in its scope.\u00a0 It simply leaves undisturbed the lower federal court&#8217;s ruling that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional because\u00a0the Prop. 8 proponents\u00a0who brought the appeals did not have the legal authority to do so.<\/p>\n<p>The effect of the Court&#8217;s ruling in the Prop. 8 case is that gay marriage will be legal in California very soon &#8212; as soon as the Ninth Circuit lifts the temporary stay it placed on gay marriages while the Supreme Court appeal was pending.\u00a0 To read the complete opinion in the Prop. 8 case, click here:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/12pdf\/12-144_8ok0.pdf\">http:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/12pdf\/12-144_8ok0.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What Does this Mean for Gay Marriage?<\/strong>\u00a0 The DOMA opinion makes it clear that it is up to the states to decide how to define marriage.\u00a0 Gradually more and more states will legalize gay marriage.\u00a0\u00a0The federal government will not disturb states&#8217; rights to define marriage to <em>include <\/em>gay marriage.<\/p>\n<p>But will the state\u00a0laws and constitutional amendments prohibiting gay marriage ever be declared <em>unconstitutional <\/em>by the U.S. Supreme Court?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is a tough question.\u00a0 The DOMA opinion says defining marriage should be left to the states, but there is plenty of language in that opinion indicating that the Justices in the majority disfavor treating\u00a0same-sex couples differently than heterosexual couples.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If a case like the Prop. 8 case were to get to the Supreme Court properly &#8212; without a procedural defect like that found in the Prop. 8 case &#8212; I believe there is a good chance the same Justices who found DOMA unconstitutional today would declare such state laws unconstitutional, thereby legalizing gay marriage nationally.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2013 by Scoresby Family Law \u2013 J. Kyle Scoresby, P.C. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Supreme Court ruled today on two major gay marriage cases.\u00a0 In one, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[135,50,76,92,163],"class_list":["post-1704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-stuff","tag-doma","tag-gay-marriage","tag-prop-8","tag-supreme-court","tag-unconstitutional"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Gay Marriage Cases - Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/26\/u-s-supreme-court-rules-on-gay-marriage-cases\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Gay Marriage Cases - Arizona Divorce &amp; 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