Federal judge overturns Alaska same-sex marriage ban
U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess struck down Alaska’s ban on same-sex marriage in a ruling handed down Sunday.
According to the ruling, Alaska law prohibiting same-sex marriage violates the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Refusing the rights and responsibilities afforded by legal marriage sends the public a government-sponsored message that same-sex couples and their familial relationships do not warrant the status, benefits, and dignity given to couples of the opposite sex,” wrote Burgess, who was nominated to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2005. According to the Human Rights Campaign, Alaska’s 1998 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage was the first in the nation.
Burgess issued his ruling with no stay, ordering the state of Alaska, including state officers, personnel, agents, government divisions and other political entities to immediately cease enforcing the ban on same-sex marriage. Alaska is covered by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down same-sex marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada on Oct. 7. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to place same-sex marriages on hold in those two states. Unless an emergency stay is issued by the 9th Circuit or the Supreme Court, same-sex couples in Alaska are expected to be able to marry once clerks offices open.
Alaska marks the 30th state, plus D.C., to allow same-sex couples to marry. The remaining states in the 4th, 9th and 10th Circuits — Arizona, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina and Wyoming — are expected to soon allow same-sex couples to marry as well.
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