California Court Rules Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconstitutional

This is going to have me giggling for days:

A California judge ruled today that the state’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, despite social traditions and historical definitions that “marriage” is a union between man and woman.

Judge Richard A. Kramer of San Francisco Superior Court held, in an opinion that will surely be appealed, that “no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners.”

Although the above generally makes me smile, I think marriage is a great institution and should be available to all free and sane people, it’s the following that really tickles me:

Several trial judges around the country have ruled that bans on same-sex marriages violate state constitutions. But despite the intense interest in the issue nationwide, there is no obvious path – yet – for it to reach the United States Supreme Court, since state courts have the power to interpret their own respective state constitutions. But those bans could be put to a federal constitutional test if one state refused to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples who were legally married in another state.

As I have written before this will have many benefits with one of the most important being the “full faith and credit“ issues of concealed carry licenses.

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