The Iowa Supreme Court today unanimously (!) ruled that gays have a right to marry.
The decision (pdf) was especially clear and reasonable. The court decided that gays have the right to marry under the state's "equal protection" clause - a constitutional guarantee that no group of people can be excluded from legal protections or institutions without cause.
The county defending the state's gay marriage prohibition needed to show that a societal good was being done by banning gays from marrying, and offered five reasons to that effect:
The objectives asserted by the County were (1) tradition, (2) promoting the optimal environment for children, (3) promoting procreation, (4) promoting stability in opposite-sex relationships, and (5) preservation of state resources.
Please join the Progressive States Network, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Montana State Senator Jim Elliott and others Friday 3/16 at 1pm EST for this important conference call about the national state-based campaign to stop President Bush's request to reauthorize "fast track" trade authority - the authority that allows presidents to strip "free" trade deals of all labor, human rights and environmental standards. As you may have heard, a new ad campaign has launched in Montana against fast track in the wake of the Montana Senate's powerful anti-fast track resolution. This fight is just starting to heat up across the country. The call-in info is in the extended entry in the media advisory sent out by the Progressive States Network today.
