Gay ‘marriage’ ban struck

BALTIMORE — A Circuit Court judge yesterday ruled that Maryland’s 33-year-old ban on same-sex “marriage” is unconstitutional.

In issuing her ruling, Judge M. Brooke Murdock imposed a stay on it pending an anticipated appeal — and preventing a rush to the altar by homosexual couples.

The ban had been challenged by 19 homosexual men and women who filed suit against court clerks in Prince George’s, Dorchester, St. Mary’s and Washington counties and Baltimore. The clerks had denied the homosexuals applications for marriage licenses, citing the 1973 law.

“After much study and serious reflection, this court holds that Maryland’s statutory prohibition against same-sex marriage cannot withstand this constitutional challenge,” Judge Murdock said in her 22-page ruling.

The law defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman violates the state constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment, which guarantees “equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged or denied because of sex,” the judge said.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office yesterday appealed the decision to the Court of Special Appeals. The case appears destined for the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, and possibly the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The most important thing is that she stayed her own decision,” said Assistant Attorney General Robert Zarnock, who argued the case for the state. “Today is like yesterday, as far as the law is concerned.”

He vowed to “do a better job” at the appellate level.

The state’s position is that marriage is not a fundamental right but a privilege and that the 1973 law does not discriminate based on sex because both men and women are prohibited from entering into same-sex “marriage.”

In addition to Maryland, homosexuals have filed “freedom to marry” suits in California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York and Washington state.

Lower-court judges in California, Washington and New York City have ruled their states’ marriage laws unconstitutional. Judges in New Jersey and upstate New York have upheld the marriage laws. Connecticut and Iowa are awaiting their courts’ first rulings on marriage laws.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ken Choe, who argued the case before Judge Murdock, said he was pleased by her ruling and is optimistic the appeals courts will “understand the plight of our clients.”

Mr. Choe said Maryland’s high courts do not have a reputation for leaning severely to the left or right, and the appeal will not be won easily.

“Is it a slam dunk?” he said. “No.”

But University of Baltimore law professor Byron Warnken says Maryland’s Court of Appeals remains one of the most liberal top state courts in the country, despite becoming slightly more conservative since 1999.

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