Bucking a national trend to legalize gay marriage, a federal appeals court today denied same-sex couples the right to marry in four states, including Michigan, delivering a major blow to the gay marriage movement, which has seen 30-some wins in the last year, the Free Press reports.
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld same-sex marriage bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, issued its decision three months after hearing same-sex marriage cases from all four states. In each of those states, federal judges had struck down same-sex marriage bans on constitutional grounds.
The Sixth Circuit overturned those decisions, going against the pro-gay marriage trend that has emerged in courts across the country, making gay-marriage legal in 34 states. The movement's first defeat came in Louisiana, where a federal judge in September upheld that state's ban on gay marriage.
The decision today by the Sixth Circuit creates a circuit court split, which increases the likelihood of the Supreme Court taking up the issue in the near future.
In a statement, the Human Right Campaign said:
“The legacies of Judges Deborah Cook and Jeffrey Sutton will forever be cemented on the wrong side of history. Today the Sixth Circuit stood in the way of a path constructed by two dozen federal court rulings over the last year – a path that inevitably leads to nationwide marriage equality. Gay and lesbian couples in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee are just as deserving of marriage equality as the rest of America.
Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, said:
“Today’s ruling is completely out of step with the Supreme Court's clear signal last month, out of step with the constitutional command as recognized by nearly every state and federal court in the past year, and out of step with the majority of the American people. This anomalous ruling won't stand the test of time or appeal.
