One day after the
Washington State supreme court rejected a case brought
by 19 same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses, Maryland's
highest court has announced it will hear a challenge
to a ruling by a circuit court judge in January that
the state law banning same-sex marriage is
unconstitutional.
In a brief order
dated Wednesday and issued Thursday, the court of
appeals granted a motion to bypass the court of special
appeals and put the case on the docket for arguments
in December. That means there will be no action on the
politically explosive issue until after the November
election.
The decision to
bypass the intermediate appeals court was not a surprise,
since the court of appeals sometimes takes cases directly
when new and important legal questions are at stake.
Baltimore circuit
judge M. Brooke Murdock struck down the law defining
marriage as the union of one man and one woman on
January 20 but stayed the effect of her ruling while
it was being appealed by the state. The suit was filed
on behalf of gay couples who had been denied marriage
licenses by circuit court clerks in St. Mary's, Dorchester,
Prince George's, and Washington counties as well as
the city of Baltimore.
Murdock said in a
written opinion that the law "discriminates based on
gender.... There is no apparent compelling state interest in
a statutory prohibition of same-sex marriage
discriminating, on the basis of sex, against those
individuals whose gender is identical to their
intended spouses."
Opponents of
same-sex marriage tried during the 2006 general assembly
session to get legislative approval of a state
constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage,
but the amendment was killed by the house judiciary
committee and then by the full house of delegates.
Republicans
pushed hard for the amendment, hoping it would be on the
ballot in November and help boost turnout by conservatives
who would then be likely to support GOP candidates for
state and local offices. Democrats did not want the
issue on the ballot, and Democratic leaders predicted
the court of appeals would uphold the state law. They said
it would be premature to amend the constitution while
the ban on same-sex marriage remained in effect. (AP)
