Judicial landscape changing for gay rights

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The overturning of Virginia’s gay-marriage ban places the legal fight over same-sex unions increasingly in the hands of federal appeals courts shaped by President Barack Obama’s two election victories.

It’s no accident that Virginia has become a key testing ground for federal judges’ willingness to embrace same-sex marriage after last year’s strongly worded pro-gay rights ruling by the Supreme Court. Judges appointed by Democratic presidents have a 10-5 edge over Republicans on the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, formerly among the nation’s most-conservative appeals courts.

Nationally, three other federal appeals courts soon will take up the right of same-sex couples to marry, too, in Ohio, Colorado and California. The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit is dominated by judges appointed by Democratic presidents. The Denver-based court, home of the 10th Circuit, has shifted from a Republican advantage to an even split between the parties, while the 6th Circuit, based in Cincinnati, remains relatively unchanged in favor of Republicans during Obama’s tenure.

U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen’s ruling Thursday, that same-sex couples in Virginia have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals, represented the strongest advance in the South for advocates of gay marriage. She put her own ruling on hold while it is being appealed.

Jon Davidson of the gay- rights group Lambda Legal said the “very dramatic” shift in the 4th Circuit under Obama was an important reason behind the decision to sue for marriage rights in Virginia, which also twice voted for Obama.

Judges’ party affiliation is not a perfect predictor of outcomes, even on charged political issues.