Kentucky Marriage Amendment (2004)
The Kentucky Marriage Amendment was on the November 2004 ballot in Kentucky as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment, where it was approved. The measure defined marriage as being between one man and one woman, and declared any legal status identical to or similar to marriage for unmarried individuals as invalid.[1] It was overturned almost 10 years later.[2]
Aftermath
U.S. District Court
On July 1, 2014, Judge John Heyburn of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky found the amendment violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by treating same-sex couples differently than straight couples. He also pointed to the fact that every federal court case regarding same-sex marriage bans has found them unconstitutional. Heyburn said of this issue,
| “ | Those opposed by and large simply believe that the state has the right to adopt a particular religious or traditional view of marriage regardless of how it may affect gay and lesbian persons. But, as this Court has respectfully explained, in America even sincere and long-held religious views do not trump the constitutional rights of those who happen to have been out-voted. [...]
Sometimes, by upholding equal rights for a few, courts necessarily must require others to forebear some prior conduct or restrain some personal instinct. Here, that would not seem to be the case. Assuring equal protection for same-sex couples does not diminish the freedom of others to any degree.[3][4] |
” |
| —Judge John Heyburn | ||
Heyburn stayed the pending an appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati decides multiple same-sex marriage cases from Kentucky and three other states. The oral arguments are scheduled to begin in that court on August 6, 2014.[5]
This was not Heyburn's first decision regarding same-sex marriage in Kentucky. In February 2014, he struck a ban on recognizing same-sex marriages from outside of Kentucky. He placed a stay on that ruling, at the time.[2][5]
Sixth Circuit Court
On November 6, 2014, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court's ruling in Kentucky. In a 2 to 1 vote, Judge Jeffrey Sutton and Judge Deborah Cook upheld the voter-approved ban. Judge Sutton said:
| “ | When the courts do not let the people resolve new social issues like this one, they perpetuate the idea that the heroes in these change events are judges and lawyers. Better in this instance, we think, to allow change through the customary political processes, in which the people, gay and straight alike, become the heroes of their own stories by meeting each other not as adversaries in a court system but as fellow citizens seeking to resolve a new social issue in a fair-minded way.[4] | ” |
| —Judge Jeffrey Sutton[6] | ||
He also argued that states have an interest in defining measure "not to regulate love but to regulate sex, most especially the intended and unintended effects of male-female intercourse." Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey, the court's dissenter, delivered a critical opinion. She said, "If we in the judiciary do not have the authority, and indeed the responsibility, to right fundamental wrongs left excused by a majority of the electorate, our whole intricate, constitutional system of checks and balances, as well as the oaths to which we swore, prove to be nothing but shams."[6]
Appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court were filed for the Kentucky case and for cases from other states, including Michigan, in the Sixth Circuit's jurisdiction. The Michigan petition asked the nation's highest court to decide "[w]hether a state violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by denying same-sex couples the right to marry."[7] The US Supreme Court refused to hear appeals from states seeking to uphold same-sex marriage bans in October 2014, which was before the Sixth Circuit's ruling. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hinted at the court's reasoning, saying, "Now if that court should disagree with the others, then there will be some urgency in the court taking the case."[8] With the Sixth Circuit's ruling, there is now a disagreement between appeals courts.
U.S. Supreme Court
- See also: Obergefell v. Hodges
On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution in the case Obergefell v. Hodges. This ruling overturned all voter-approved constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.[9]
Justice Anthony Kennedy authored the opinion and Justices Ruth Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito each authored a dissent.
The concluding paragraph of the court's majority opinion read:
| “ | No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.[4] | ” |
| —Opinion of the Court in Obergefell v. Hodges[10] | ||
Election results
| Kentucky Marriage Amendment | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Overturned Case:Love, et al. v. Beshear CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:13-CV-750-H | ||||
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
| Yes | 1,222,125 | 74.6% | ||
| No | 417,097 | 25.4% | ||
Text on ballot
The text on the ballot said:
"Are you in favor of amending the Kentucky Constitution to provide that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be a marriage in Kentucky, and that a legal status identical to or similar to marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized?"
Financing the campaign
A total of $724,234 was spent on both sides of the campaign, with $201,370 on the pro-side and $522,864 on the anti-side.
The major donors to the "yes" vote side were:
- Vote Yes for Marriage Committee, $135,493.
- Yes for Traditional Marriage, $41,308.
The committee supporting the "no" side, Kentucky Families for Fairness, had 791 donors. The major donors were:
- National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, $73,000.
- Carla Wallace, $43,754.
- Stinson-Lewis-Stinson Pride Foundation, $40,000.
- Fairness Campaign, $17,000.[11]
Related measures
Voters approved ballot measures to define marriage as between one male and one female in the following 30 states. The first such measure was in 1998, and the latest one occurred in May 2012. Bans on same-sex marriage were invalidated in the 2015 United States Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges.
- 1998: Alaska
- 2000: Nebraska
- 2002: Nevada
- 2004: Arkansas
- 2004: Georgia
- 2004: Kentucky
- 2004: Louisiana
- 2004: Michigan
- 2004: Mississippi
- 2004: Missouri
- 2004: Montana
- 2004: North Dakota
- 2004: Ohio
- 2004: Oklahoma
- 2004: Oregon
- 2004: Utah
- 2005: Kansas
- 2005: Texas
- 2006: Alabama
- 2006: Colorado
- 2006: Idaho
- 2006: South Carolina
- 2006: South Dakota
- 2006: Tennessee
- 2006: Virginia
- 2006: Wisconsin
- 2008: Arizona
- 2008: California
- 2008: Florida
- 2012: North Carolina
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 2004 Kentucky Election Results (dead link)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Associated Press, "Judge Strikes Down Kentucky's Gay Marriage Ban," July 1, 2014
- ↑ Love, et al. v. Besehar, 3:13-CV-750-H (W.D.K.L. 2014)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 USA Today, "Gays have right to marry in Kentucky, judge rules," July 1, 2014
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 USA Today, "Gay marriage bans in four states upheld, Supreme Court review likely," November 7, 2014
- ↑ Washington Post, "Two more same-sex marriage cases reach the Supreme Court," November 18, 2014
- ↑ New York Times, "Same-Sex Couples Petition Supreme Court on Right to Marriage," November 14, 2014
- ↑ NPR, "Supreme Court Declares Same-Sex Marriage Legal In All 50 States," June 26, 2015
- ↑ Supreme Court of the United States, "Obergefell v. Hodges," June 26, 2015
- ↑ Follow the Money database on the Kentucky Marriage Amendment (2004)
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