Fox News reportsDES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling Friday finding that the state’s same-sex marriage ban violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian couples, making Iowa the third state where marriage will be legal.
In its decision, the court upheld a 2007 district court judge’s ruling that the law violates the state constitution. It strikes the language from Iowa code limiting marriage to only between a man a woman.
“The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa constitution must be declared void even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion,” said a summary of the ruling issued by the court.
In an opinion just released on the Iowa Supreme Court website, the Iowa Supreme Court today struck down the Iowa marriage laws recognizing marriage as the union of a husband and wife.
The ruling, which held that the marriage laws unconstitutionally discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, puts the ball back in the court of the state legislature, where a constitutional amendment to protect marriage as the union of a husband and wife was introduced last month.
As soon as today’s decision was handed down, we set up an online action center so that Iowa residents can quickly and easily contact their elected officials, urging them to support HJR 6, which gives Iowa voters a chance to have the final say on marriage.
We know that the people of Iowa support marriage — and we need to make sure their legislators get the message: Marriage is too important to leave in the hands of a few judges. Let the people vote!
Marriage does matter. Let us, those who know of the dangers of the legalization of same-sex marriage, hope that the people of Iowa will soon have an opportunity to cast their vote and amend their constitution so that it defines marriage as it is: a union between a man and a woman.