For the second time in the past four days, North Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriage has been struck down. Two different judges reached the same constitutional conclusion in separate cases — one in Asheville, on Friday, the other in Greensboro, on Tuesday afternoon.
North Carolina is located in the federal judiciary’s Fourth Circuit, and both judges said they were bound by the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for that circuit, finding Virginia’s ban to be unconstitutional. That Fourth Circuit decision was one that the Supreme Court refused to review last week.
U.S. District Judge William L. Osteen, Jr., in Tuesday’s ruling from his Greensboro court, ordered state officials to stop enforcing the state ban. His order was to take effect immediately. Moments before issuing that ruling, however, he allowed two leaders of the state legislature to enter the case, for purposes of pursuing an appeal. The lawmakers sought to enter the case after the state’s attorney general had said he would no longer try to defend the law, in the wake of the Fourth Circuit’s ruling in the Virginia case.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr., of Asheville found the law to be unconstitutional. That judge also did not put his ruling on hold pending any appeal.
The Fourth Circuit includes — in addition to Virginia and North Carolina — Maryland, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Maryland already allows same-sex marriage, under a vote of its people in a referendum. West Virginia officials have ceased defending their ban. The South Carolina Supreme Court, however, has temporarily barred the issuance of any marriage licenses in that state.
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