Judge to Order Ohio to Recognize Other States’ Gay Marriages

A federal judge in Ohio is
warning the state in advance that he’ll be ruling later in April
that the state cannot refuse to recognize same-sex marriages
performed legally in other states. The same judge had previously
ruled the state must recognize same-sex marriages for the limited
purpose of listing relationships in death certificates. Some of the
headlines out there on this latest development are a bit
problematic. The judge will not be requiring Ohio to issue marriage
licenses to same-sex couples. Some headlines give the strong
suggestion this is the case. Instead, like recent rulings in
Tennessee and Kentucky, the judge is saying Ohio will have to
recognize gay marriages from states like New York and California,
which now issue licenses to gay couples. Chris Geidner at BuzzFeed

notes:

This case, brought in February on behalf of Brittani Henry and
Brittni Rogers, initially was about birth certificates, and being
able to have parents’ marriages recognized on them, but, per
Friday’s docket entry, the decision will be finding the recognition
ban unconstitutional “under all circumstances.”

Presuming the state will appeal this coming ruling as well,
expected by April 14, the case would join the other Ohio
recognition case, as well as Tennessee and Kentucky cases about
marriage recognition and the Michigan case about full marriage
equality in that state, on appeal before the 6th Circuit.

I noted earlier when a similar ruling was handed down in
Tennessee that requiring states to recognize other states’ gay
marriages could ultimately bring about the end of gay marriage bans
without the Supreme Court having to make a big, broad ruling.