This is the end of our winning streak in federal court since Windsor.
Judge Martin Feldman, appointed by President Reagan, decided that the laws don't violate the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses.
In his opinion, he includes much material that could lead to a legitimate case being made that it was a political decision, not a judicial/constitutional one. He describes being gay as a "lifestyle choice[]," and also mentions marriages between "aunt and niece", "aunt and nephew", "father and child" and polygamous marriages.
He also misidentifies heightened scrutiny as the most difficult burden of proof that a law could be required to meet, when of course, that's strict scrutiny.
He also relies on Justice Roberts' dissenting opinion in Windsor four separate times, which is stupid because, well, it's a dissenting opinion. It's not the majority opinion of the court, and not binding precedent. Had he actually followed the precedent of the Supreme Court, maybe he would have ruled differently.
Finally, he argues that interracial marriage bans are different to same-sex marriage bans because "the Fourteenth Amendment explicitly condemns racial discrimination as a constitutional evil." This is not true. The Fourteenth Amendment bans denying equal protection of the laws to any person, not to any person because of their race. Any discrimination, even if it is not racial, should be intensely scrutinized.
So to me, it appears that Judge Feldman was looking to uphold these laws no matter what. The ruling is disappointing, of course, but I don't think it's that big a deal. I don't think we could reasonably expect that there would never be one single federal judge who would rule against us.We still have had over 20 wins in federal courts in a row since Windsor. The judicial weight of this issue still lies firmly with us.
http://thinkprogress.org/...