‘The majority view…must give way’: Judge strikes down Oklahoma constitutional marriage amendment
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK , January 15, 2014 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) – The state of Oklahoma approved a state constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage by a three-to-one margin in 2004. But on Tuesday, a federal judge struck the amendment down, branding it an "arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of Oklahoma citizens from a governmental benefit ." In a 68-page opinion , U.S. District Judge Terence Kern said the state constitution's definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman “violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution .” “Equal protection is at the very heart of our legal system and central to our consent to be governed,” he wrote. In 2004, more than 75 percent of state voters approved Oklahoma Question 711 , which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman, barred the state from recognizing same-sex “marriages” contracted in other states, and made issuing a marriage