Hours after the high court announced it had struck down DOMA and rejected California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage, Gov. Mary Fallin issued a public statement reconfirming her opposition to “expanding the definition of marriage.”
By contrast, state advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality called it a day for celebration.
“This will likely be seen as the single most important day in terms of LGBT equality,” said Scott J. Hamilton, executive director of Cimarron Alliance Equality Center. “I believe it will galvanize more support for even more equality.”
State bans
The end of DOMA will have no immediate effect in Oklahoma, where voters in 2004 overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage. Still, the court’s rulings are the first step in what surely will be a deluge of lawsuits in the 38 states that currently have bans.
“The Supreme Court really avoided the issue of state bans in the California case, but they know they won’t avoid it forever,” said Andrew Spiropoulos, a law professor at Oklahoma City University School of Law.
In declining to rule on the merits of Proposition 8, the justices in effect sidestepped the question of state bans. But many legal experts say the DOMA defeat is likely to prompt more lawsuits challenging such bans.
“Basically, a couple will have to apply for a marriage license and be denied one,” Spiropoulos said.
What will happen the next time the issue comes before the Supreme Court depends on several factors, not the least of which being the court’s future ideological composition. Five of the current justices are 65 or older, and liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has battled cancer and other health problems for several years.
Spiropoulos said he believes it could take two to four years before such a case would come before the high court.
Banned in Oklahoma
In
written statements after the decision, Fallin and U.S. Rep. James
Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, emphasized that more than 75 percent of
Oklahoma voters approved the same-sex marriage ban, State Question 711, nine years ago.
But Rick Tepker, a University of Oklahoma law professor, said a ruling majority does not define the rights of U.S. citizens.
“I
should think every attorney knows this,” he said. “It’s been that way
since the beginning of the country; the majority cannot take away
individual rights.
They can enforce their will in terms of public policy, but not where constitutional guarantees are concerned.”
That
is the heart of the fight going forward: Is same-sex marriage a
constitutionally protected right? Both Tepker and Spiropoulos said they
believe Justice Anthony Kennedy hinted at the court’s opinion in his
majority decision.
“Justice Kennedy clearly said a national majority lacks power to discriminate among state-sanctioned marriage,” Tepker said.
But
all that remains to be seen, including whether same-sex couples
lawfully married elsewhere and now living in Oklahoma are subject to the
same federal benefits as other married couples. Tepker said he believes
they are. President Barack Obama has said his administration is
reviewing which federal benefits are applicable.
In
the meantime, the Sooner State’s LGBT community will have to live with
the ban or go elsewhere — a possibility at least one couple is contemplating.
Tim
Fields and and Eddie Walker have been together for 18 years and are
raising two adopted children. Fields is a hairstylist and freelance
writer; Walker is executive director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.
Sixteen
years ago, they had a commitment ceremony. The couple hopes to reaffirm
that commitment in a place where it has the force of law.
“I
was hopeful that the court would strike down the bans, but they
didn’t,” Fields said, “so now we’re considering our possibilities.”
Those options include getting married in a state that has marriage equality.
“We
feel positive that change will come, even slowly,” he said, “but we are
considering the possibility of leaving Oklahoma, too.”
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