Federal Court Nixes Nebraska's Gay Marriage Ban

A few days late to comment on this vital social turn, but it needs commentary regardless. One of the earliest ratified amendments to a state constitution that bans any form of gay marriage took place in Nebraska in the 2000 elections. A US District Judge has ruled it restricts the core rights of the couple.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon said the ban “imposes significant burdens on both the expressive and intimate associational rights” of gays “and creates a significant barrier to the plaintiffs' right to petition or to participate in the political process,” according to The Washington Post.

Bataillon said the ban beyond “goes far beyond merely defining marriage as between a man and a woman.”

The judge said the “broad proscriptions could also interfere with or prevent arrangements between potential adoptive or foster parents and children, related persons living together, and people sharing custody of children as well as gay individuals.”

It brings to light that this issue of defining marriage has effects more than simply gays. It also strikes the chord of the serious fact of a natural, human right being impeded in America by enacting these laws.