Challenge to gay marriage ban heard

Ark. judge likely to make ruling in two weeks

LITTLE ROCK — Advocates of ending Arkansas’ ban on same-sex marriage took their case before a Pulaski County Circuit Court judge Thursday, who said at the end of the hearing that he expected to issue a ruling within two weeks.

Arguing for the plaintiffs, attorney Jack Wagoner said the voter-approved constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is itself unconstitutional.

The state and federal constitutions guarantee “rights that can’t be taken away,” Wagoner argued.

Wagoner said rights to due process and equal protection cannot be superseded even by a state constitutional amendment.

“When the government is in the marriage business, same-sex couples have to be treated the same,” Wagoner said. “The fact that they’ve been historically discriminated against is less reason to have laws targeting them.”

Colin Jorgensen, an as- sistant attorney general arguing for the state, said Amendment 83, the antigay marriage measure, does not conflict with the state Constitution.

Jorgensen said that at no point in the state’s history has an amendment been knocked down on the grounds that it violated the Arkansas Constitution.

“The people of Arkansas can put whatever they want in the Constitution. The only check on that is the U.S. Constitution,” Jorgensen said.

The courtroom was packed with same-sex couples, many of whom were among the plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of the measure.

Circuit Judge Chris Piazza said at the conclusion of the hearing that he will issue a ruling in about two weeks.

“We might have to have another gathering,” Piazza said.

Arguing for the plaintiffs, attorney Cheryl Maples said gay people constitute a politically unpopular minority that’s being targeted by an unfair law.

“They want the same things that all Arkansans want,” Maples said. “This law was set to harm them.”

Maples noted that Arkansas law bans first cousins from marrying but recognizes the marriages of first cousins who were married in another state. She said the state also recognizes out-of-state marriages of people who aren’t old enough to be married in Arkansas.

Likewise, heterosexual couples who have children through a surrogate have both their names on the birth certificate. When a member of a lesbian cou- ple has a child through artificial insemination, only the birth mother can be listed on the birth certificate, she said.

Maples said one couple that’s among the plaintiffs couldn’t attend the hearing because they had a child with severe birth defects, and that their status prohibits one of them from being able to make medical decisions with the baby’s doctor.

“It makes no sense that same-sex couples not have their marriages recognized,” Maples said. “It’s pure animus.”