Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
In what certainly is a “rare loss” for the homosexual lobby in redefining marriage to include two people of the same sex, a federal judge ruled that Louisiana’s law affirming marriage as the union between one man and one woman is constitutional:
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman also upheld the state’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally in other states. His ruling was the first to uphold a state ban since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year.
In 2004, 78 percent of Louisiana voters approved an amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage. Gay marriage is legal in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
Feldman said gay marriage supporters failed to prove that ban violates equal protection or due process provisions of the U.S. Constitution. He also rejected an argument that the ban violated the First Amendment by effectively forcing legally married gay couples to state that they are single on Louisiana income tax returns.
As I mentioned last week in a post about a federal judge striking down the cohabitation part of Utah’s law against bigamy, homosexuals are equally protected under marriage laws. They may marry any presently unmarried and not-closely-related adult of the opposite sex they wish.
The judge cited the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Although the Obama administration announced it would not defend DOMA, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, it allows states to refuse to recognize as marriage any union other than one man and woman performed in other states. Louisiana has the sovereign authority to reject another state’s definition of marriage.
The judge also refused to “fashion a new suspect class.” Factors like race and national origin are considered suspect classifications, particularly certain racial groups historically likely to face discrimination. Whenever someone from a “protected” class makes such a claim, courts review the law under the highest level of judicial scrutiny. The homosexual lobby wants to raise homosexuality, or more precisely, “sexual orientation,” — behavior — to the suspect-class level. They’ll probably succeed in Louisiana one day. But not today.
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