Back in September, a district judge in Louisiana ruled the state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Now, lawyers on both sides of the case are urging the Louisiana Supreme Court to weigh in ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court's expected ruling on the issue by late June.
The AP reports:
Kyle Duncan, making the state's argument that its ban on same-sex marriage should stand, argued that the nation's highest court "needs as much input as possible on this issue, especially from state supreme courts."
Paul Baier and Josh Guillory, arguing on behalf of two women legally married in California, said the case involves an urgent question about whether one can adopt the child of the other. "At the heart of this matter is a 10-year-old little boy," Guillory said. […]
As has happened in earlier arguments in other courts, both sides touched on the U.S. Supreme Court's "Windsor" case, which struck down law forbidding federal recognition of legal same-sex marriages.
Duncan told the seven state Supreme Court justices that the case language that makes clear the rights of individual states to define marriage. Baier argued that nothing in the Windsor case allows the denial of the constitutional right to marry.
Baier and Guillory said it is possible that the court could uphold Costanza's right to adopt Brewer's child without ruling on the constitutionality of the Louisiana gay marriage ban. Guillory told the justices that the pair meets the standards for adoption outlined in the Louisiana Children's Code.
This is a separate case from U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman's strange, hateful ruling upholding Louisiana's gay marriage ban that was heard before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month.