PHOENIX — Conservative Christian organizations are cheering an Oct. 8 opinion by Arizona’s Court of Appeals that concluded that same-sex partners do not have the legal right to marry.
“We hold that the fundamental right to marry protected by our federal and state constitutions does not encompass the right to marry a same-sex partner,” concluded Judge Ann A. Scott Timmer in a 34-page opinion.
“Moreover, although many traditional views of homosexuality have been recast over time in our state and nation, the choice to marry a same-sex partner has not taken sufficient root to receive constitutional protection as a fundamental right.”
The Alliance Defense Fund, a Phoenix-based Christian legal group, called the case a defeat of an effort by a gay couple to apply the Supreme Court’s June decision upholding sodomy to same-sex marriage.
“The Arizona Court of Appeals rejected any notion that Lawrence vs. Texas legitimized same-sex marriage,” said Benjamin W. Bull, chief counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, in a statement. “That notion has now gone into the dumpster of history with other harebrained notions.”
(TAB)
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