CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – A federal judge on Wednesday struck down South Carolina’s same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional, opening the door to such marriages but also giving the state a week to appeal.
U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel, ruling in the case of a same-sex couple from Charleston who sued to be married, found South Carolina’s state constitutional ban “invalid as a matter of law.”
He also blocked any state official from interfering with the plaintiffs’ rights to be married. But Gergel wrote that order would not take effect until noon Nov. 20, allowing Attorney General Alan Wilson a chance to appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. A spokesman for Wilson said the attorney general is reviewing the order.
However, the 4th Circuit already has struck down Virginia’s gay marriage ban, a ruling that applied to other states in the circuit. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of that case last month. South Carolina is the only state in the circuit that has refused to allow such marriages.
Gergel wrote that the 4th Circuit decision is the ruling precedent in South Carolina.