Breaking – Alabama: Federal Judge Rules State Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconstitutional

A federal judge has ruled that Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the U.S. Constitution. 

This evening United States District Judge Callie V. S. Granade ruled that the State of Alabama’s ban on same-sex couples marrying violates the 14th Amendment and therefore is unconstitutional. Judge Granade did not immediately place a stay on her ruling. The case is Searcy v. Strange, and was filed in May of 2014.

“Alabama’s prohibition of same-sex marriage detracts from its goal of promoting optimal environments for children. Those children currently being raised by same-sex parents in Alabama are just as worthy of protection and recognition by the State as are the children being raised by opposite-sex parents,” Judge Granade’s ruling reads. “Yet Alabama’s Sanctity laws harms the children of same-sex couples for the same reasons that the Supreme Court found that the Defense of Marriage Act harmed the children of same-sex couples.”

The ban “denies the families of these children a panoply of benefits that the State and the federal government offer to families who are legally wed,” Granade added.

“There has been no evidence presented that these marriage laws have any effect on the choices of couples to have or raise children, whether they are same-sex couples or opposite-sex couples. In sum, the laws in question are an irrational way of promoting biological relationships in Alabama.”

And Judge Granade, appointed by President George W. Bush, took a direct swing at Attorney General Strange’s defense.

“The Attorney General does not explain how allowing or recognizing same-sex marriage between two consenting adults will prevent heterosexual parents or other biological kin from caring for their biological children. He proffers no justification for why it is that the provisions in question single out same-sex couples and prohibit them, and them alone, from marrying in order to meet that goal. Alabama does not exclude from marriage any other couples who are either unwilling or unable to biologically procreate. There is no law prohibiting infertile couples, elderly couples, or couples who do not wish to procreate from marrying. Nor does the state prohibit recognition of marriages between such couples from other states. The Attorney General fails to demonstrate any rational, much less compelling, link between its prohibition and non-recognition of same-sex marriage and its goal of having more children raised in the biological family structure the state wishes to promote.”

 

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