US: Judge sceptical of Colorado’s defence of same-sex marriage ban
In a hearing on Monday, a federal judge seemed sceptical about the future of the state of Colorado’s same-sex marriage ban, and the state’s defences of it.
Judge C Scott Crabtree held the hearing on Monday around two lawsuits challenging the 2006 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.
The judge pointed out that fifteen other judges had struck down same-sex marriage bans in other states, and noted that the rulings came after the US Supreme Court decision to strike-down DOMA, allowing the federal government to recognise state-approved same-sex marriages.
Crabtree responded sceptically to the state’s argument that all of the justices’ ruling had been misread, syaing: “They got it all wrong?”
He noted a couple he personally knows who will marry this summer at the age of 65, doubting the state’s argument that the ban protects the procreative nature of marriage.
“Their marriage is not about having any more kids,” he said.
One lawsuit was filed by an Adams County couple, and the second was filed by nine couples, both seek to allow same-sex couples to marry. The former is specific to the one couple while the latter seeks to strike down the same-sex marriage ban.
The lawsuits were consolidated, and will be heard together
Same-sex civil unions have been legal in Colorado since 2013, but same-sex marriages are currently banned by the state’s constitution.
The nine couples argued in their lawsuit that civil unions are an unequal alternative to marriage.
Voters approved Amendment 43, a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, back in 2008.
