Washington state high court to rule on gay marriage

SEATTLE (Reuters) – The Washington Supreme Court said it
expects to hand down a decision on Wednesday in a case
challenging the state’s gay marriage ban.

Washington could become the second state after
Massachusetts to legalize gay weddings if the state’s high
court supports two appealed lower court rulings in favor of
same-sex marriage.

The justices posted a short release on the court’s Web site
on Tuesday, but the notice gave no indication of the decision’s
outcome.

The plaintiffs in the case, 19 gay and lesbian couples,
challenged the constitutionality of Washington state’s Defense
of Marriage Act, a law passed by the state legislature in 1998
restricting marriage to one man and one woman.

The gay marriage case before the Washington state Supreme
Court consolidates rulings by judges in King and Thurston
counties in two separate cases overturning that act.

The court could rule in a number of ways.

It could uphold the marriage act, or rule against the act
and give gays and lesbians the right to marry, or rule against
the act but say there is no right to same-sex marriage under
the state’s constitution. It could also turn the decision over
to the Washington state legislature.

The U.S. Supreme Court has not taken a case on gay
marriage, leaving states to decide the issue.

In 2003, Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a
ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, leading to America’s
first same-sex marriages the following year.

Connecticut and Vermont allow same-sex civil unions, while
California, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
offer gay and lesbian couples some legal rights as partners.
But these steps have provoked a backlash from voters elsewhere
in the nation.

Marriage is defined as the union of one man and one woman
in at least 41 states and voters in at least 18 have
overwhelmingly approved “defense of marriage” amendments in
their state constitutions. Several more states will vote on the
issue in November.