Federal Panel Strikes Down Virginia Same-Sex Marriage Ban

A federal appeals court in Virginia ruled Monday that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said the state’s constitutional and statutory provisions barring gay marriage and denying such unions performed in other states “impermissibly infringe on its citizens’ fundamental right to marry.”

It was not immediately clear if or when the state would begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, The Associated Press reports.

In the ruling, Judge Henry F. Floyd wrote that personal opposition to same-sex marriage is not a legitimate legal basis for banning it.

“We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable,” Floyd wrote. “However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws. ... The choice of whether and whom to marry is an intensely personal decision that alters the course of an individual’s life. Denying same-sex couples this choice prohibits them from participating fully in our society.”

The decision also renders unconstitutional similar bans throughout the 4th Circuit in North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia, USA Today reports. Maryland, which is also in the circuit, legalized same-sex marriage in Nov. 2012.

Ted Olson and David Boies, two high-profile lawyers who led the fight against California’s Proposition 8, brought the case before the appeals court May 13. Monday’s decision came in a lawsuit filed in July last year by two Norfolk men - Timothy B. Bostic and Tony C. London - who were denied a marriage license and two Chesterfield County women - Carol Schall and Mary Townley - whose California marriage license is not recognized by Virginia. Two more same-sex couples, Joanne Harris and Jessica Duff of Staunton and Christy Berghoff and Victoria Kidd of Winchester, filed a similar lawsuit in Harrisonburg and were allowed to intervene in the case before the appeals court, the Associated Press reports.

Roger L. Gregory, who was first appointed by President Bill Clinton, and Henry F. Floyd, appointed by President Barack Obama, voted to uphold the ruling. Presiding judge Paul V. Niemeyer, appointed by President George H. W. Bush, was the ruling’s sole dissenter.

This marks the second appellate-level court to rule on state-level marriage bans following the decision to strike down sections of the Defense of Marriage Act last summer. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Denver voted 2-1 in June to strike down Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage. The Tenth circuit reached a similar decision last week regarding Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban.

A total of 19 states now permit same-sex marriage. Lower courts have ruled against bans in 13 of the remaining 31 states, and more than 70 lawsuits are pending in all 31 states that still have prohibitions.