Mexican Supreme Court Rules That Bans On Gay Marriage Are Unconstitutional

The Mexican Supreme Court today issued a sweeping decision in which it declared that bans on same-sex marriage are "discriminatory and unconstitutional."  The formal ruling was delivered today, but the court made the decision in December.

J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed:

The ruling not only makes a strong statement about Mexican law's treatment of equal protection guarantees, it also relies heavily on civil rights rulings handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Although several justices of the American court take pride in not caring what foreign courts say, any who read the Mexican decision will find the court makes an impassioned case for the United States to follow its lead.  Writing for a unanimous tribunal, Minister Arturo Zaldívar Lelo de Larrea invoked the U.S. cases Loving v. Virginia and Brown v. Board of Education to argue for marriage equality in a way that American activists would be overjoyed to see from a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bolding is mine! Same-sex marriage is presently legal in Mexico City and the state of Quintana Roo. Marriages performed in both places are recognized nationwide. Today's ruling only applies in the state of Oaxaca.  Feder explains:

Unlike in the United States, it takes more than one ruling from Mexico's Supreme Court to strike down a law—the court must rule the same way in five separate cases before a law falls. This ruling concerns three separate cases; it will take two more for any same-sex couple in Oaxaca to be able to wed easily, and then the process may have to be repeated in other states. But this precedent means this is a procedural issue, not a legal one.

Zoom, zoom, zoom! Or in this case, rápido, rápido, rápido!