Yay, gay marriage ban ruled illegal!
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
"We are better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them onto the ash heap of history."
Opacity via Flickr Creative Commons
We take a break from your regularly scheduled primary coverage to note the big news that a federal judge just struck down Pennsylvania's gay-marriage ban, which doesn't exactly make gay marriage legal, but is a big step closer.
"We are better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them onto the ash heap of history," [U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III] wrote in the 39-page opinion. "By virtue of this, ruling, same-sex couples who seek to marry in Pennsylvania may do so, and already married same-sex couples will be recognized as such in the Commonwealth."
The Corbett administration may fight this on its way out, but they'll be doing so without state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who said back in July of 2013 when the suit was filed that she isn't willing to defend the ban in court because she considers it unconstitutional:
"If there is a law that I feel that does not conform with the Pennsylvania state constitution and the U.S. Constitution, then I ethically cannot do that as a lawyer," she said.
Kane added that the Pennsylvania General Counsel, James D. Schultz, was fully capable of defending the governor, who was also named as a defendant in the ACLU lawsuit. "I'm not leaving them high and dry," she said. "They have their own team."
So... hey! Big news! Now back to the primary, which — seeing as how we've been confronted by tons of dejected poll workers telling us about how bad turnout is all day — seems kind of small potatoes in comparison.
