Tennessee judge breaks gay marriage's streak

[Geee]

The Hill:

A judge in Tennessee broke a streak of successful rulings across the country in the past year in favor of same-sex marriage.

 

State circuit court Judge Russell Simmons Jr. ruled that the state's ban on recognizing gay marriages does not violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

 

His ruling last week — first flagged by SCOTUS blog on Monday — stands in contrast to the dozens of state, federal and appeals court decisions that have struck down bans on gay marriage since the United States V. Windsor Supreme Court case in 2013. That ruling struck down a portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, but Simmons said it did not apply to the Tennessee case.

"The Windsor case is concerned with the definition of marriage, only as it applies to federal laws, and does not give an opinion concerning whether one state must accept as valid a same-sex marriage allowed in another state," he wrote.

He added: "The Supreme Court does not go the final step and find that a state that defines marriages as a union of one man and one woman is unconstitutional."