U.S. Circuit Judge Jerome Holmes may be what the deciding factor in whether gays should be allowed to wed in the United States, according to MSNBC.com.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act gay rights lawyers have successfully convinced eight federal judges that the ruling means courts must strike down laws against gay marriage because they deprive same-sex couples of a fundamental right, MSNBC reported.
During Thursday's hearing before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel, Holmes suggested he interpreted the Supreme Court's ruling the same way, according to MSNBC.
With one judge strongly hinting he supported the lower court rulings that struck down the Oklahoma and Utah bans, and another appearing skeptical of them, all eyes were on Holmes to see where the panel might come down, MSNBC reported.
Holmes last week said that if the yardstick is whether the state has a rational reason to single out gay couples, the same-sex plaintiffs would lose, but if the standard was any higher, they would win, according to MSNBC.
On Thursday, the judges spent most of their time either questioning Campbell or debating whether the plaintiffs sued the correct person and had legal standing for the court to intervene, MSNBC reported.
The case has taken 10 years to reach this point because another 10th Circuit panel in 2009 ruled the plaintiffs incorrectly sued the governor and attorney general and directed them to name a different party, according to MSNBC. The plaintiffs then sued the county clerk who denied them a marriage license.
Oklahoma voters overwhelmingly approved that state's gay marriage ban in 2004 and a federal judge in January ruled that the ban violated the constitutional rights of gays, triggering the appeal, MSNBC reported. That case is almost identical to the Utah case, in which a federal judge struck down that state's 2004 voter-approved gay marriage ban in December.
The justices' decision likely will pivot on the level of deference they believe a court should give voters to deny a group of people the ability to marry, according to MSNBC.
