Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Oregon marriage ban getting a court review

Associated Press

SALEM – The future of Oregon’s ban on same-sex marriage goes before a federal judge this week, and while critics will argue that it unconstitutionally discriminates against gays and lesbians, there appears to be little support for it to be upheld.

Oregon’s attorney general, Democrat Ellen Rosenblum, says the state’s ban is legally indefensible. Her office filed a lengthy brief urging U.S. District Judge Michael McShane to throw it out. There have been no legal arguments submitted for upholding the ban.

Federal judges in five states have thrown out voter-approved bans on same-sex marriage on constitutional grounds since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year, and many other challenges are pending.

For Oregon’s ban, oral arguments are scheduled for Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Eugene.

The court is deciding two cases that have been consolidated. Portland attorneys Lake Perriguey and Lea Ann Easton filed a lawsuit in October on behalf of two women in a relationship for more than 30 years. Two months later, the American Civil Liberties Union and lawyers from two firms went to court on behalf of a lesbian couple and a gay couple.

“The ban on same-sex marriage serves no rational purpose and harms Oregon citizens,” lawyers for the state wrote. “This case presents that rare case in which there simply is no legal argument to be made in support of a state law.”

The U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause prohibits the government from treating a group of people differently from others unless there’s sufficient justification that furthers a legitimate public interest. In this case, much of the legal analysis surrounds how high the bar should be for the government to prove it has an interest in treating gays and lesbians differently with respect to marriage.

Even so, both the same-sex couples bringing the suit and the state argue that the marriage ban is unconstitutional under any standard of review because it fails to advance any legitimate government interest.

Voters added a ban on gay marriage in 2004 after Multnomah County issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples.