A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld anti-gay marriage laws in four states, a departure from recent court decisions that struck down similar bans.
The conflict increases the likelihood the Supreme Court will settle the issue once and for all, as advocates on both sides of the debate and 32 states have pressed it to do.
A three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based-6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to keep gay marriage bans or restrictions in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Judge Jeffrey Sutton, in writing the majority opinion, suggested his court wasn’t the proper venue to settle the issue.
“Our judicial commissions did not come with such a sweeping grant of authority, one that would allow just three of us — just two of us in truth — to make such a vital policy call for the thirty-two million citizens who live within the four States of the Sixth Circuit,” Sutton wrote.
The Michigan and Kentucky cases stem from lower court rulings that struck down each state’s gay marriage bans. Ohio’s two cases deal only with the state’s recognition of out-of-state gay marriages, while Tennessee’s is narrowly focused on the rights of three same-sex couples.
The panel’s decision follows more than 20 court victories for supporters of same-sex marriage since the Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year.
The Supreme Court on Oct. 6 also rejected appeals from five states seeking to prohibit gay and lesbian unions, effectively making gay marriage legal in 30 states.
But Thursday’s decision creates a circuit court split, as three other circuit courts nationwide in recent weeks have stuck down gay marriage bans. And many legal experts predict the high court now will step in to resolve the conflict.
UPDATE, 6:25 p.m.: The conservative Alliance Defending Freedom said Thursday’s decision was consistent with legal precedent that marriage law is the business of the states.
“The people of every state should remain free to affirm marriage as the union of a man and a woman in their laws,” said the groups’s senior counsel, Byron Babione. “As the 6th Circuit rightly concluded, the Constitution does not demand that one irreversible view of marriage be judicially imposed on everyone.”
But the gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign said the legacies of Sutton and Judges Deborah Cook, who also voted to uphold the bans, “will forever be cemented on the wrong side of history.”
“Now, more than ever before, the Supreme Court of the United States must take up the issue and decide once and for all whether the Constitution allows for such blatant discrimination,” said HRC President Chad Griffin.
