In 1967, the case of Loving v. Virginia—a constitutional challenge to Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage—was argued at the U.S. Supreme Court, just up the road from the federal courthouse here in Richmond, Virginia, where on Tuesday the U.S. 4^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in another case involving a ban on marriage (this time, same-sex). As Judge Paul V. Niemeyer noted Tuesday morning, this case, a challenge to the 2006 voter initiative that amended Virginia’s constitution to prohibit gay marriage, is very likely only in Richmond “as a way station to go up I-95 to Washington,” where last year the high court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act but declined to clarify whether there is a fundamental right to same-sex marriage protected in the Constitution. “Maybe we should just say, ‘We pass,’ and let the case go on,” Niemeyer joked.
Reported by Slate 3 hours ago.
↧