‘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 license to a homosexual couple a misdemeanor.
Two lesbian couples filed the case, Bishop v. Oklahoma, in 2004, and it has taken nearly nine years to reach this week's verdict.
Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, responded to the decision saying, “The people of Oklahoma have spoken on this issue. I support the right of Oklahoma’s voters to govern themselves on this and other policy matters.”
Congressman James Lankford, also a Republican, agreed. “Oklahomans overwhelmingly decided marriage is a unique institution between a man and a woman," he said. "Since the Constitution leaves marriage laws to the states, the State of Oklahoma has the right to define marriage in a way consistent with the values of our state.”
But Kern, who was appointed to the court in March 1994 by President Bill Clinton, said the U.S. Constitution grants a right to same-sex “marriage” by prohibiting unequal treatment.
“Therefore, the majority view in Oklahoma must give way to individual constitutional rights,” Kern wrote.
Legal scholars say that conflicts with Supreme Court precedent – and the very legal argument the Obama administration made against the federal Defense of Marriage Act. State Attorney General Scott Pruitt said, “the Supreme Court recently noted in the Windsor case, it is up to the states to decide how to define marriage, not the federal government.”
Congressman Lankford said judicial activism like Kern's “is why the American people are so frustrated with government and government officials.” “The people speak clearly but elected officials and judges ignore them,” he said.
Oklahoma would be the 19th state to legalize gay “marriage,” more than half by judicial decree.
Kern's ruling comes less than one month after U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby, whom President Obama named to the bench, stuck down Utah's constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Two-thirds of Utah voters approved that constitutional amendment.
Unlike the flurry of licenses granted in Utah, Oklahoma will not be issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals just yet. Kern's ruling is stayed until the case completes the appeals process. Both cases will be decided by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver as they work their way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the wake of Tuesday's decision, the National Organization for Marriage renewed its call to pass a federal constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage.
NOM President Brian Brown said, “We need firm legislative action to protect the rights of the states and their citizens to make their own determinations regarding the definition of marriage without interference from federal appointees either in the courts or within the executive branch.”
