RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Same-sex marriages began in Virginia on Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court decision striking down the state’s ban on such unions. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order implementing its ruling that the ban is unconstitutional shortly after the justices declined to take the case, and gay and lesbian Virginians began obtaining marriage licenses and marrying.
Here’s a brief recap of Virginia’s gay marriage case:
THE BAN: In 2006, Virginians voted 57 percent to 43 percent to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage and denying recognition of such unions performed in other states.
THE LAWSUIT: Timothy Bostic and Tony London filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Norfolk challenging the ban in July 2013 after they were denied a marriage license by the Norfolk Circuit Court clerk. Carol Scholl and Mary Townley, a Chesterfield County couple who were married in California in 2008 and are raising a teenage daughter, later joined the lawsuit.
THE INTERVENORS: The month after the Norfolk lawsuit was filed, two other couples - Joanne Harris and Jessica Duff of Staunton and Christy Berghoff and Victoria Kidd of Winchester - filed a similar lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg. They were later allowed to intervene in the Norfolk case after it reached the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
THE DEFENDANTS: The state registrar of vital records and the Norfolk circuit court were named as defendants. Later, the Prince William County circuit clerk was permitted to intervene and was represented by outside counsel after newly elected Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring sided with the plaintiffs.
JUDGE WRIGHT’S RULING: On the night before Valentine’s Day, U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen ruled that the same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional, making Virginia the first state in the South to have its voter-approved prohibition overturned. She agreed with plaintiffs’ lawyers who had compared the ban to Virginia’s onetime prohibition on interracial marriage, writing: “Tradition is revered in the Commonwealth, and often rightly so. However, tradition alone cannot justify denying same-sex couples the right to marry any more than it could justify Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage.”
THE APPEAL: The defendants appealed Wright’s ruling to the Richmond-based federal appeals court, which voted 2-1 to uphold the decision in late July. The ruling in effect struck down similar bans in four other states in the circuit - West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina - but Wright’s decision to put the ruling on hold until the Supreme Court decided whether to take the case remained intact.
THE JUSTICES: The Supreme Court’s decision not to review the case cleared the way for the 4th Circuit to issue an order allowing its ruling to take effect immediately.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGES BEGIN: As soon as the ruling took effect, gay and lesbian couples began receiving marriage licenses across Virginia. A same-sex couple in Richmond promptly got married outside the courthouse, and the lead plaintiffs - Bostic and London - were the first gay couple to receive a marriage license in Norfolk, just over 15 months after they were denied.
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Online:
Appeals court order: https://1.usa.gov/1CPdGQO
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