As the same-sex marriage civil rights issue winds its way through our federalist system of governance, there are two distinct paths taken by proponents.  One is where state legislatures promulgate laws allowing same-sex marriages; the other is where state officials capitulate in on-going post-Windsor federal litigation challenging same-sex marriage prohibitions.

Oregon now joins Virginia and Nevada as the latest states no longer willing to defending state constitutional bans on gay marriage in the wake of the SCOTUS Windsor decision.  In 2004, voters in Oregon passed "Measure 36" -a state law banning same-sex marriage- by a 57% margin; two federal lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Measure 36 were subsequently lodged in federal court and have dispositive motions pending [similar to the recently denied dispositive motions in the DeBoer case grinding onward here in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit].

In one of those lawsuits, Oregon state officials announced their capitulation in a responsive pleading.  The case involves a lesbian couple who were married during the brief interval where Oregon allowed same-sex marriages, prior to the passage of Measure 36.

Two years post-Windsor, we see this civil rights issue picking-up steam.  Significant legal developments occur nearly each week posing a challenge for us here at the Law Blogger to keep up with the pace of the changes.

As always, we will do our best to keep our readers informed.

www.clarkstonlegal.com
info@clarkstonlegal.com