Miami Judge Becomes 2nd To Overturn Florida Same-Sex Marriage Ban
Source: Huffington Post
A Florida judge has overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage in a ruling that applies to Miami-Dade County, agreeing with a judge in another county who made a similar ruling last week.
The ruling issued Friday by Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel applies only in Miami-Dade County. The Monroe County judge's ruling last week was stayed when Attorney General Pam Bondi filed notice of appeal. Zabel also stayed the effect of her ruling indefinitely to allow for appeals.
Both rulings found the same-sex marriage ban approved by voters in 2008 violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law.
Bondi and ban supporters argued the referendum vote should be respected and that Florida has authority to define marriage in the state as between one man and one woman.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/25/florida-same-sex-marriage-ban_n_5622248.html?&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067
Miami-Dade judge: Florida’s gay-marriage ban unconstitutional; couples can wed, but not until case is appealed
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Late Friday afternoon, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel ordered that six same-sex couples who sued Miami-Dade County Clerk Harvey Ruvin for marriage licenses in January should be allowed to wed.
There will be no weddings yet: In her ruling, Zabel ordered an immediate stay until after the case is appealed.
“To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the... classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law,” Zabel wrote in her order, citing a 1967 Supreme Court ruling that overturned a state ban on interracial marriage.
On July 17, Monroe County Chief Circuit Judge Luis Garcia also ruled Florida’s gay marriage ban unconstitutional and ordered that two gay Key West men be allowed to marry. That decision has also been stayed and Aaron Huntsman and William Lee Jones have not yet been allowed to marry in Florida.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/25/4255321/miami-dade-judge-floridas-gay.html
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