(The image above is from ConnectAmarillo.com.)The Supreme Court has been avoiding making a decision on equal marriage rights for years now -- and some recent Appeals Court decisions had me thinking the Supreme Court might be able to avoid it forever. Four different Circuit Courts of Appeals (the 4th, 7th, 9th, and 10th) found that state bans on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which guarantees equal rights under the law to all Americans. The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of those decisions.
Many of us thought the matter was effectively settled, and that the other Circuit Courts of Appeals would take this refusal by the Supreme Court as a guide on how to decide their own pending cases -- but that was not to be. It turns out that there are still some bigoted judges sitting on federal benches, and they are not ready to give in on this issue.
Last Thursday,a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2 to 1 that the bans on same-sex marriage in four states (Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee) did not violate the Constitution. They ruled that the state bans did not pose "a substantial federal question". That's an amazingly erroneous decision in my opinion. The question is whether a state can deny rights to one group that it extends to other groups (in this case the right to marry). It's a question of discrimination, and discrimination has long been held to be a "substantial federal question".
This means the U.S. Supreme Court will now be forced to hear a same-sex marriage case, and finally decide once and for all whether those bans violate the Constitution. They will have to decide the matter, because the Constitution cannot be interpreted in different ways in different parts of the country. The state bans on same-sex marriage either violate the Constitution in all states (which I think is the case) or it is permissible for all states to discriminate against same-sex couples -- it must be one way or the other for all states.
