Maryland High Court Reverses Decision That Struck Down Gay-Marriage Ban
Maryland's highest court has reversed a lower court ruling that had struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, reported the Washington Post.
Baltimore Judge M. Brooke Murdock had held that "the 1973 law banning same-sex marriage is discriminatory and 'cannot withstand constitutional challenge.'"
In overturning that decision, the four judge majority wrote that absent evidence of discrimination:
Judicial intervention is generally unwarranted no matter how unwisely we may think a political branch has acted.
In declaring that the State's legitimate interests in fostering procreation and encouraging the traditional family structures in which children are born are related reasonably to the means employed by [the law banning same-sex marriage], our opinion should by no means be read to imply that the General Assembly may not grant and recognize for homosexual persons civil unions or the reasons.
The Post reported the "plaintiffs described the protections they do not have because their relationships are not legally recognized: [including] inheritance and adoption rights, decisions about life support, hospital visitation."
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Bell
faulted the majority for not recognizing gay people as a 'suspect class,' a group that warrants special protections from discrimination. Bell dismisses the majority view that gays are politically empowered and should not be viewed as constituting such a class.
Video of a panel hosted by ACS on the difference between marriage and civil unions at its 2007 national convention is available here. A transcript of a discussion at the 2004 national convention on gay marriage, federalism, and amendment the constitution is available here.