One side was euphoric, the other dismayed, but both foes and supporters of same-sex marriage swiftly turned their attention to the U.S. Supreme Court after an against-the-grain appeals court ruling upheld bans or restrictions on gay marriage in four states.
The 2-1 ruling Thursday by the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – affecting laws in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee – ran counter to a wave of recent federal court rulings striking down state bans on same-sex marriage and boosting the number of states that allow it to 32.
“We are ecstatic,” said National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown, an outspoken foe of same-sex unions. “The other side was counting their chickens before they’re hatched.”
Brown welcomed the new possibility that a split in appeals court rulings would oblige the Supreme Court to take up the issue, which it sidestepped last month.
Chase Strangio, an attorney in the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project, described the 6th Circuit ruling as “an outlier that’s incompatible with the 50 other rulings that uphold fairness for all families.”