Second judge rules against Missouri gay marriage ban

Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Officials in the Kansas City area said they will begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Friday after a federal judge struck down Missouri's ban on gay marriage, marking the second such ruling in a week.

U.S. District Judge Ortrie R. Smith ruled that Missouri's constitutional provision limiting marriage to only a man and woman violates the U.S. Constitution.

Although Smith wrote that he was delaying the effect of his decision pending an appeal, officials in Jackson County announced later in the day that they would immediately begin granting marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

"Courts are ruling that marriage is a fundamental right of every citizen," Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders, a Democrat, said in a written statement. "Sound public policy dictates that right be applied uniformly across the state."

But Missouri now has a patchwork of gay marriage policies.

Officials in St. Louis city and county began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples after a state lower-court judge ruled Wednesday that Missouri's constitutional ban on gay marriage violated the U.S. Constitution. But officials throughout much of the rest of the state have declined to issue licenses to same-sex couples, asserting that the court rulings apply only to the places where they occurred.

Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat who has expressed personal support for gay marriage, has appealed the St. Louis court ruling to the Missouri Supreme Court. Koster said Friday that he would appeal the federal court ruling to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In his ruling, Smith wrote that Missouri's gay marriage ban violated same-sex couple's rights to due process and equal protection under the U.S. Constitution. The court finds "no real reason for the State's decision to dictate that people of the same gender cannot be married," he wrote.

Lawyers for gay couples seeking the right to marry said the ruling should go into effect immediately across the state.

"Each recorder of deeds can begin complying with the Constitution as it's been interpreted by a state judge and a federal judge now, or there can be more litigation" against each county, ACLU attorney Tony Rothert said.

The Human Rights Campaign, which supports same-sex marriage, said Ortrie's ruling is the first by a federal court against a gay marriage ban in the territory of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

It comes a day after a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned lower court rulings that had struck down gay marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. But several U.S. appeals courts in other regions of the country have ruled in recent months that states cannot ban gay marriage.

At least 30 states allow same-sex marriage, many prompted by a Supreme Court decision last month that turned back appeals from five states seeking to uphold bans.

Missouri's constitutional amendment barring gay marriage was approved by about 70 percent of voters in 2004, making the state the first to adopt a constitutional ban following a decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court permitting gay marriage.

Gov. Jay Nixon, speaking at an unrelated news conference in Kansas City, deferred to Koster, but said he expects gay marriage to eventually become legal across Missouri.

"The legal arc is clearly pointing that way," he said.

Associated Press writer David A. Lieb in Jefferson City contributed to this report.