CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal judge who ordered Ohio to
recognize the marriages of same-sex couples performed in other states
says he’s inclined to issue a stay of his decision pending appeal,
meaning most gay couples living in the state would see no immediate
tangible expansion of their rights.
Cincinnati-based Judge Timothy
Black ordered attorneys on both sides of the case to file their
arguments over whether he should issue a stay no later than Tuesday
afternoon. He indicated he would rule expeditiously.
Black said in
his Monday ruling that he’s inclined to stay his ruling pending appeal
except in the case of the four gay couples who filed the February
lawsuit that led to the court case.
If he rules as indicated, Ohio
would immediately have to recognize the four couple’s marriages and
list both spouses as parents on their children’s birth certificates.
Three
of the four couples live in the Cincinnati area. They’re all women and
one spouse in each relationship is pregnant and due to give birth this
summer.
The fourth lives in New York City but adopted their child from Ohio.
Black
said in Monday’s ruling that the state’s gay marriage ban "most
directly affects the children of same-sex couples, subjecting these
children to harms spared the children of opposite-sex married parents."
"Birth
certificates are vitally important documents," Black wrote. "Ohio’s
refusal to recognize plaintiffs’ and other same-sex couples’ valid
marriages imposes numerous indignities, legal disabilities, and
psychological harms. Further, the state violates plaintiffs’ and other
same-sex couples’ fundamental constitutional rights to marry, to remain
married, and to function as a family."
Black’s order does not
force Ohio to allow gay marriages to be performed in the state, though
civil rights attorneys in Cincinnati are planning to file a lawsuit in
the next couple of weeks seeking such a ruling.
The state plans to
appeal Black’s Monday order, arguing that Ohio has a sovereign right to
ban gay marriage, which voters did overwhelmingly in 2004.
Attorneys
for the state also will argue that Black should stay his ruling until
their appeal of it is decided in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in Cincinnati.
If Black declines to stay the ruling, that would
allow all married gay couples living in Ohio to obtain the same benefits
as any other married couple in the state, including property rights and
the right to make some medical decisions for their partner.
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