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Shock: Connecticut Supreme Court Strikes Down State Ban on Same-sex "Marriage"

By Tim Waggoner

HARTFORD, October 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Today, in a shocking 4-3 decision, the Connecticut Supreme Court stuck down the state's ban on homosexual "marriage," making Connecticut the third state to allow homosexuals to legally "marry."

Justice Richard N. Palmer, reversing a lower court ruling that concluded that same-sex civil unions legalized in 2005 offer the same rights as marriage, found that the "segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm." Palme justified his decision in light of "the history of pernicious discrimination faced by gay men and lesbians, and because the institution of marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody."

Palmer also wrote that "the state had failed to provide sufficient justification for excluding same-sex couples from the institution of marriage."

Republican Governor M. Jodie Rell criticized the undemocratic fashion in which the Supreme Court was attempting to redefine the age-old definition of marriage. "I do not believe their voice reflects the majority of the people of Connecticut," he said. "However, I am also firmly convinced that attempts to reverse this decision, either legislatively or by amending the state Constitution, will not meet with success. I will therefore abide by the ruling."

Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Alliance Action and Liberty Counsel, and Associate Dean with Liberty University School of Law, shared the Governor's concerns.
 
"Today, Connecticut's high court ruled that its state constitution led 'inevitably to the conclusion' that men and women who are so inclined, have a 'right' to 'marry' someone of the same sex.  The 'inevitable conclusion' the Connecticut Supreme Court reached is only inevitable in the minds of judicial activists who are hell-bent on imposing, through judicial fiat, their own skewed ideology on 'we the people'," said Barber.

"Why do we even need the legislative and executive branches of government if we are going to allow the courts to brazenly legislate from the bench as a self-ordained Judiciocracy?" he continued.  "It's ridiculous to imagine that the framers of the Connecticut Constitution could have even conceptualized the oxymoronic notion of 'gay marriage,' much less considered it a 'constitutional right.'"

While the court decision is to be enacted on October 28, the first same-sex couples will not be able to "marry" until mid-November, after the required mechanisms are put in place. Connecticut joins Massachusetts and California as the only states to permit homosexuals to "marry." In both cases the "right" for homosexuals to "marry" was imposed through the courts via activist judges and not through the legislature.

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