Listen to this articleAdams County District Court Judge C. Scott Crabtree declared Colorado’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional today, but stayed his ruling. Colorado currently allows for civil unions, but defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
“The Court holds that the Marriage Bans violate plaintiffs’ due process and equal protection guarantees under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” Crabtree said in his ruling. “The existence of civil unions is further evidence of discrimination against same-sex couples and does not ameliorate the discriminatory effect of the Marriage Bans.”
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers argued for the state’s ban, saying that the 15 state and federal judges who have struck down similar measures in other states were wrong.
Crabtree was skeptical of the state’s claim that previous judges had erred in their rulings and mocked the state’s argument that Colorado’s ban on same-sex marriage protects the “nature of marriage” and the ability to produce children.
“There is no rational relationship between any legitimate governmental purpose and the Marriage Bans,” Crabtree wrote in the decision. “No state, including Colorado, restricts marriage to the procreative and the fertile.”
“They all got it wrong?” Crabtree asked during arguments in the case. “What am I supposed to do then when presented with this? Just punt?”
