Last Unchallenged U.S. State Banning Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ to Face Federal Lawsuit

ChristianNews.net | May 25, 2014

The last U.S. state with laws on the books banning same-sex ‘marriage’ will soon face a federal lawsuit, reports state.

“There will be a case filed challenging North Dakota’s same-sex marriage ban,” attorney Joshua Newville of Madia Law in Minneapolis told the Washington Post.

Newville had just filed a lawsuit against officials in South Dakota on Thursday, challenging a 1996 law enshrining marriage as being between a man and a woman, as well as a state constitutional amendment passed by 52 percent of voters in 2006.

“Only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in South Dakota,” it reads. “The uniting of two or more persons in a civil union, domestic partnership, or other quasi-marital relationship shall not be valid or recognized in South Dakota.”

A lawsuit was also filed in Montana on Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of eight homosexuals in the state. Voters in Montana had likewise approved a constitutional amendment, but the ACLU alleges that the referendum, passed in 2004 by a 67 percent majority, violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, however, will not defend the state from the legal challenge.

“Montanans cherish our freedom and recognize the individual dignity of every one of us,” he wrote in a statement this week. “The time has come for our state to recognize and celebrate—not discriminate against—two people who love one another, are committed to each other, and want to spend their lives together.”

Source: http://christiannews.net/2014/05/25/last-unchallenged-u-s-state-banning-same-sex-marriage-to-face-federal-lawsuit/