A federal judge ruled earlier today that Oklahoma's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage violates the federal Constitution:
The state’s ban on marriage by gay and lesbian couples is “an arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of Oklahoma citizens from a governmental benefit,” wrote Judge Terence C. Kern of United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, in Tulsa, deciding a case that had languished for nine years. The amendment, he said, is based on “moral disapproval” and does not advance the state’s asserted interests in promoting heterosexual marriage or the welfare of children.
Lawyers representing Oklahoma were on the ball and actually asked for a stay of this ruling pending their appeal -- something that the state of Utah managed to stumble with following their recent federal court ruling in favor of gay families.
