I Guess Virginia Is For Lovers
By A federal judge has struck down Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage. Her holding is that because marriage is a fundamental right, the ban must be subject to strict scrutiny, which it fails:
Tradition is revered in the Commonwealth, and often rightly so. However, tradition alone cannot justify denying same-sex couples the right to marry any more than it could justify Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage.
[…]
This rationale fails under the applicable strict scrutiny test as well as a rational-basis review. Of course the welfare of our children is a legitimate state interest. However, limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples fails to further this interest. Instead,needlessly stigmatizing and humiliating children who are being raised by the loving couples targeted by Virginia’s Marriage Laws betrays that interest.E.S.-T., like the thousands of children being raised by same-sex couples, is needlessly deprived of the protection, the stability, the recognition and the legitimacy that marriage conveys.
Judge Wright Allen also says that the ban would fail rational basis equal protection review. The quote from Mildred Loving at the top is a nice touch.