Herring supports same-sex union

BY MARIAH YOUNG
Virginia’s Attorney General Mark Herring filed a brief with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supporting same-sex marriage.
Herring urged the appellate court to uphold Judge Arenda Wright Allen’s, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, original ruling that the current ban against same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. In the papers, he claimed that same-sex couples “have the same right to marry as interracial heterosexual couples,” according to the Associated Press report.
Both parties expect the case to ultimately be decided in the U.S. Supreme Court, whether it comes from this Virginia’s case or another state’s challenge of a same-sex marriage ban.
“Since the Supreme Court ruled last year that a law prohibiting the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages was unconstitutional, federal judges have struck down state bans in Michigan, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Texas,” according to the AP. “A judge in Kentucky has ordered the state to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, and a judge in Ohio has said he will do the same. Several other lawsuits have been filed.”
The brief cited Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 case that ended the interracial marriage ban in the United Sates. This is often used as an argument for striking bans on same-sex marriage, along with the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause.
While some have claimed that allowing same-sex marriage will eventually allow “polygamy and unions between close relatives,” Herring urged the court to dismiss these claims, according to the Washington Post.