As reported here, [t]he [Washington] state Supreme Court will stand by its endorsement of Washington's gay marriage ban, justices said Wednesday.
Gay and lesbian couples had asked the justices to reconsider their 5-4 ruling upholding the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1998 law limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples.
The court's denial, signed by Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, is the final word in the case. Further appeal is not possible because no federal legal issues were raised.
The high court rarely reconsiders its rulings. Few observers expected it to revisit a ruling that took nearly 18 months to craft.
"Having taken as long as they took to make up their minds, I thought it was unlikely that they would change them," said Assistant Attorney General Bill Collins, who defended the gay-marriage ban in court.
Gay marriage supporters said the ruling was particularly disheartening because it came on the same day New Jersey's Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples are entitled to benefits heterosexual couples have.
Over 40 states have some sort of variation of our law on their books, with 20 states having amended their state constitutions, specifically defining marriage as being between a man and a woman, with the rational being to promote stable families. I'm glad that we can count Washington State among that group.
Listen. If you are a gay or lesbian that wants to see changes made to the laws, your best recourse for doing so is by going through your state legislature, and stop trying to get the courts to legislate from the bench, ok? Depending on where you live, you can either simply lobby your legislative representatives to ask them to either change current laws, or write new laws, or try to get an initiative or referendum on the ballot, and let the voters decide. That's how the process works.
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