From the Hartfard Courant, via Swampland:
Same-sex couples won the right to marry in Connecticut in an historic ruling by the Supreme Court today. Citing the equal protection clause of the state constitution, the justices ruled that civil unions were discriminatory. In a 4-3 decision released at 11:30 a.m., the majority wrote that the state’s “understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection.” “Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice,” the majority wrote. “To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others.”
The race to legalize gay marriage continues.
I’m currently studying the history of state divorce laws, which leaves me thinking about how this “race” will play out over the coming decades. Which states will be the last on board? Our federalist system is quite frustrating in some ways, but it is fascinating nonetheless.
