UPDATED: Federal Judge Strikes Down Nebraska Same-Sex Marriage Ban

A federal judge has just ruled that Nebraska’s ban on same-sex couples marrying is unconstitutional. What happens next?

A federal judge has just ruled Nebraska’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon has stayed his ruling for one week, giving the state time to appeal. 

Bataillon heard the case, Waters v. Ricketts, filed by seven same-sex couples, on February 19, and issued his ruling this morning.

One of the plaintiff couples is Susan and Sally Waters (photo). Sally, 58, suffers from terminal cancer. Batallion wanted his ruling to be released while Sally is still alive.

The couple have several children, adopted while they lived and married in California. Nebraska for decades has had one of the nation’s most restrictive bans of same-sex adoption, even banning any gay person from fostering children. 

“Marriage is about more than procreation,” Batallion wrote today. “The ostensible ‘procreative’ purpose does not hold up in light of the situations presented by infertile, intentionally childless, or elderly couples, all of whom are allowed the benefits and responsibilities of a state-sanctioned marital relationship.”

Even if the State’s purported justifications could be seen as important interests, a same-sex marriage ban is simply not substantially related to those interests.

The court agrees with Judge Posner’s statement in Baskin that “these cases are about discrimination against the small homosexual minority in the United States. But at a deeper level, as we shall see, they are about the welfare of American children.”

Judge Batallion in his ruling also predicts the U.S. Supreme Court will permanently strike down same-sex marriage bans nationwide.

“The court is persuaded that the Supreme Court will ultimately endorse, for one reason or another, the results obtained in the Fourth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuit challenges to same sex marriage bans,” he writes.

UPDATE I – 10:32 AM EST:

Wasting absolutely no time, Nebraska immediately appealed to the 8th Circuit:

 

 

Image of Susan and Sally Waters by Jason M. McClaren via ACLU Nebraska