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Maryland: Same-Sex “Marriage” Ban Goes Before State’s Highest Court

By Gudrun Schultz

BALTIMORE, Maryland, July 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The battle over same-sex “marriage” will go before Maryland’s highest court this fall, as the state’s Court of Appeals takes over a case challenging a state law that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Nineteen homosexual and lesbian couples have sued the state for discrimination, claiming the state’s refusal to legally recognize same-sex “marriages” is unconstitutional.

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge M. Brooke Murdock ruled in favour of the group last January, in a decision opponents said was out of step with state judicial consensus on the issue.

“I don’t think the same opinion would have been rendered in 90 percent of the other circuits in the state of Maryland,” said Maryland Senate President Thomas Miller, a Democrat, who opposed the ruling.

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. immediately filed an appeal with the Court of Special Appeals, but on Thursday the state’s highest court took over the case, the Baltimore Sun reported today.

The announcement came one day after Washington state’s Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to uphold the state’s ban on homosexual marriages, further strengthening the efforts of pro-family supporters to protect traditional marriage in the country.

Earlier this month the state of New York’s highest court also ruled in favour of the state’s constitutional ban on homosexual “marriages.”

Judges in both Washington and New York state rulings cited concern over the welfare of children as a decisive factor in the decision to uphold the traditional definition of marriage.

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Maryland Judge Strikes Down State Law Banning Homosexual 'Marriage'
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06012006.html

Washington State Supreme Court Upholds Homosexual "Marriage" Ban
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06072601.html

New York's Highest Court Rules 4-2 In Favor Of Traditional Marriage
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06070601.html

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