Federal Judge Rules Against State Defense Of Marriage Act

September 10, 2004 – Washington judge Richard Hicks has ruled that the state’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. He also ruled that homosexuals are a “suspect class,” meaning that any law treating them differently must be looked at in the same way that laws on race are examined. Hicks said that laws preventing same-sex couples from marrying “work to invalidate forms of family that the community recognizes and supports.” He said that children in same-sex families “should not carry the stigma of coming from less than a family—a government-approved family.”

Judge Hicks refused to allow state legislators to intervene in this case. They feared that the state Attorney General would not aggressively defend DOMA from homosexual activists.

According to ACLU lawyer Paul Lawrence, who filed the lawsuit to overturn DOMA: “It was a clear finding that the state constitution requires equal treatment of all citizens.

Assistant Attorney General William Collins said the state Supreme Court will read this ruling carefully but will decide independently if the state DOMA violates the constitutional rights of homosexuals to marry.

Voters in Washington passed the DOMA in 1998 over the veto of Governor Gary Locke.

This latest attack against the will of the people in Washington state and the Defense of Marriage Act proves once again that a federal constitutional amendment and a state constitutional amendment are needed to protect marriage as a one-man, one-woman union.

A federal amendment must also prohibit the imposition of homosexual “civil unions” at the state level. A civil union is nothing more than homosexual marriage under another name. TVC’s report on homosexual marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships explains the differences and similarities.

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