Just nine days ago, Federal District Court Judge Martin L.C. Feldman ruled that Louisiana's ban on same-sex marriage could stand, saying that states should have the right to decide, not only who can marry, but if marriages performed elsewhere will be recognized by the state.
This was the first ruling by a district or appeals court that has been decided in favor of a state ban on same-sex marriage.
Yesterday, a unanimous three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ignored Louisiana's bigotry and joined the overwhelming majority of those courts that have ruled same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional.
Ruling against same-sex marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana, Judge Richard Posner, writing for the panel, said "Homosexuals are among the most stigmatized, misunderstood, and discriminated-against minorities." He wrote that, denying them the right to marry causes "continuing pain." The panel found states' arguments that heterosexual unions and children will be harmed by allowing same-sex unions "totally implausible."
"The challenged laws discriminate against a minority defined by an immutable characteristic, and the only rationale that the states put forth with any conviction--that same-sex couples and their children don't need marriage because same-sex couples can't produce children...is so full of holes that it cannot be taken seriously."
Answering the states' argument that their bans are based on centuries of tradition, Judge Posner pointed out the harm caused by other centuries-old traditions such as foot-binding. He said, "(If a tradition is) written into law and it discriminates against a number of people and does them harm, it is not just a harmless anachronism; it is a violation of the equal protection clause."
A stay was issued to allow the states to decide if they will appeal.
May the Supreme Court get this right...and soon.
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