Kentucky Couples Sue For State Marriage Rights


In the wake of a federal judge ruling Kentucky should recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, two gay couples have filed suit, requesting the state issue marriage licenses to gay couples. On Friday the couples filed an "intervening complaint," asking District Judge John G. Heyburn to expand on his original decision.

"The couples, Timothy Love and Lawrence Ysunza, and Maurice Blanchard and Dominique James, 'say they should be allowed to join the earlier lawsuit in the interest of ‘judicial economy’ and because there are issues common to both cases.'"

"'The court was not presented with the particular question whether Kentucky’s ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional,'” Heyburn wrote in his ruling. 'However, there is no doubt that Windsor [last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing federal recognition of same-sex marriages] and this court’s analysis suggest a possible result to that question.'” 

Heyburn's ruling won’t be final until he works out details of its implementation. A hearing on the subject is in the works.

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