Pennsylvania judge to rule on same-sex marriage ban

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/20/pennsylvania-gay-marriage-ban-court-judge

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Gay rights activists should know within hours whether Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage will be overturned, less than a day after a similar law was struck down in Oregon.

A federal judge in Harrisburg is expected to rule Tuesday on a challenge to the state's 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. A court website says US district judge John Jones will issue his ruling this afternoon.

Every north-eastern state except Pennsylvania allows gay marriage. The lawsuit, filed 9 July by civil rights lawyers on behalf of a widow, 10 couples and one of the couples' two teenage daughters, was the first-known challenge to a 1996 Pennsylvania law that effectively bans same-sex marriage and recognition of such marriages from other states.

Since then, at least five more legal challenges to Pennsylvania's law have surfaced in state and federal courts, including one in which a Montgomery County official is defending his decision to issue 174 marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

State marriage bans have been falling around the country since the supreme court's "Windsor" decision last year. The landmark ruling struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Dozens of gay and lesbian couples are now legally married in Oregon after a judge invalidated the state's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.

Jubilant couples began applying for marriage licenses immediately after US district judge Michael McShane issued his ruling Monday, and many were married hours later. In Portland, Multnomah County issued more than 70 licenses, according to the gay-rights group Oregon United for Marriage.

Also Monday, a federal judge in Utah ordered state officials to recognize more than 1,000 gay marriages that took place in the state over a two-week period before the US supreme court halted same-sex weddings with an emergency stay.

US district judge Dale Kimball said the stay put the couples in an unacceptable legal limbo regarding adoptions, child care and custody, medical decisions and inheritance. But he put a 21-day hold on his ruling to allow the state a chance to appeal.

The Oregon decision marks the 13th legal victory for gay marriage advocates since the supreme court last year overturned part of a federal ban.