cityXtra Magazine

Court Rules Tennessee's Same-Sex Marriage Ban Is Constitutional

BREAKING: For the first time since the Supreme Court's DOMA decision, a court has ruled that the constitution does not protect a gay couples’ right to marry.

Slate magazine reported this afternoon, that for the first time since June of 2013, when the Supreme Court struck down the major provisions of The Defense of Marriage Act, a court has ruled a state's ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional. 

Roane County Circuit Judge Russell E. Simmons Jr. (right) ruled that Tennessee’s same-sex marriage ban is "rationally related to state interests" and therefore does not violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause. 

Judge Simmons:

“Marriage simply cannot be divorced from its traditional procreative purposes... the promotion of family continuity and stability is certainly a legitimate state interest. There is nothing irrational about limiting the institution of marriage for the purpose for which it was created, by embracing its traditional definition. To conclude otherwise is to impose one’s own view of what a State ought to do on the subject of same-sex marriage."

Judge Simmons' decision, is a direct contradiction of almost thirty court decisions, that have found there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, including two by federal appeals courts. It may be all the division the Supreme Court needs to weigh in sooner, rather than wait for the all the states to wade through the challenges to their marriage bans. 

Stay tuned...