Court
to weigh overturning gay marriage bans in three southern states
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[January 09, 2015]
By Jonathan Kaminsky
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A federal appeals
court is set on Friday to weigh whether to strike down same-sex marriage
bans in the conservative southern states of Texas, Louisiana and
Mississippi.
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A three-judge panel will hear arguments about gay marriage bans in
the three states, setting up a possible decision that could allow
gay marriages to go ahead.
The hearings before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit
come as momentum builds nationwide to allow same-sex marriage, which
is now legal in 36 states.
Also on Friday, U.S. Supreme Court justices will meet in private to
decide whether to add cases on the issue to their calendar this
term.
The suit in Texas, which is the most populous state where gay
marriage remains illegal, was filed on behalf of Austin residents
Cleopatra De Leon and Nicole Dimetman, who were married in
Massachusetts, and Victor Holmes and Mark Phariss, who were denied a
marriage license when they applied in Texas.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jan/09/images/ads/current/humanesociety_sda022411.png) In February, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled the Texas ban
unconstitutional because it denied the couples equal protection
under the law. Enforcement of the decision is on hold pending the
appeal.
Proponents of the bans in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama have argued
that states have the right to decide who can marry and that it is in
the states' interests to promote marriage between a man and a woman.
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In September, a U.S. district judge upheld Louisiana's gay marriage
ban, in what was a break from a string of recent rulings against
such bans in other states that followed a U.S. Supreme Court
decision in June 2013 expanding federal recognition of same-sex
marriages.
Two months later, a U.S. district judge struck down as
unconstitutional a same-sex marriage ban in Mississippi, overturning
a measure that voters overwhelmingly approved about a decade ago.
(Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky)
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