Chris Casteel
U.S. Senior Judge Terence Kern struck down Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage on Tuesday, saying it “intentionally discriminates against same-sex couples desiring an Oklahoma marriage license without a legally sufficient justification.”
In his 68-page, opinion, Kern said courts reviewing marriage regulations “must be wary of whether “defending” traditional marriage is a guise for impermissible discrimination against same-sex” couples.
Oklahoma’s law he said violated the equal protection rights of the Tulsa couple that brought the lawsuit nine years ago.
Kern called it a “a total exclusion of only one group.”
And he said, “Excluding same-sex couples from marriage has done little to keep Oklahoma families together thus far, as Oklahoma consistently has one of the highest divorce rates in the country.”
Because the U.S. Supreme Court has held up marriages in Utah, where a federal judge recently made a similar ruling, Kern issued a stay in the Oklahoma case so same-sex couples can’t marry while appeals are pending.
Byron Babione, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the Tulsa County Clerk in the case, said, “Marriage expresses the truth that men and women bring distinct, irreplaceable gifts to family life.
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