State Supreme Court Upholds Gay Marriage Ban

Washington passed DOMA in 1998, two years after the federal government passed such a law, defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Since then, a majority of states have passed similar gay-marriage bans. Two separate lawsuits challenging the Washington statute were filed in 2004 — one against King County, the other against the state — by 19 gay and lesbian couples seeking the right to marry or to have their marriages from elsewhere recognized in this state. In each of those cases, a Superior Court judge sided with the plaintiffs, applying different analyses to declare the state's DOMA unconstitutional. The two cases were merged into one for the appeal to the Supreme Court, which was argued March 8, 2005, by attorneys for both sides. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003152467_webdoma26.html

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