Federal Judge Deems Arkansas Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconstitutional

senky/iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LITTLE ROCK, Ark.) — A federal judge on Tuesday ruled against Arkansas’ state laws defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Amendment 83 of the Arkansas Constitution defines marriage, court documents say, as “consist[ing] only of the union of one man and one woman.” A state law also defines marriage the same way and declares all marriages of same-sex couples as void.

The lawsuit was brought by a pair of same-sex couples. One couple, Rita and Pam Jernigan who are married under Iowa state law, want to receive spousal benefits under the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. Meanwhile the other couple, Becca and Tara Austin, hopes to marry “for the same reasons that many other couples marry: to declare publicly their love and commitment to one another before their family, friends, and community and to give to one another the security and protections that only marriage provides,” according to court documents.

The Austins say that because Becca is not a biological parent to the twin children they have, and because the two cannot legally marry under Arkansas law, Becca cannot be considered a parent to the children. Court documents also cite reduced family resources and stigmatization as complaints.

Each couple had applied for and were denied marriages licenses from the Pulaski County Circuit and County Clerk following the U.S. Supreme Court deemed a part of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, eliminating the definition of marriage — for purposes of federal laws — to include only opposite-sex couples.

Judge Kristine Baker determined that the laws in question “restrict the Jernigans and Austins’ fundamental right to marry,” and that those lws “unconstitutionally deny consenting adult same-sex couples their fundamental right to marry.”

Baker did, however, grant a stay, giving the state the opportunity to appeal the ruling.

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