Jul 26 2006
Washington State Upholds Ban on Homosexual Marriage
From the Seattle P-I: State’s high court upholds ban on gay marriage
By TRACY JOHNSON and PHUONG CAT LEThe state Supreme Court today upheld Washington’s law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, rejecting the argument of 19 same-sex couples that they’ve been unfairly denied the right to wed.
In a splintered decision, Justice Barbara Madsen wrote that the state’s marriage law was enacted to ‘promote procreation and to encourage stable families.’
‘The legislature was entitled to believe that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers the State’s legitimate interests in procreation and the well-being of children.’
She wrote that the same-sex couples failed to prove that they had a fundamental right to marry, or that the state’s 1998 Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional.”
The lead on P-I main page read, “Ban on gay marriage upheld: The Washington State Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision today, upheld the Legislature’s right to ban same-sex marriages. There can be no appeal.”
