SCOTUSblog On Louisiana

SCOTUSblog on the confusing situation in Louisiana:

A state judge in Louisiana, ordering state officials to treat as legal the California wedding of a same-sex couple, has struck down a state ban on such marriages — the same ban that was upheld in federal court earlier this month. The federal case is now awaiting an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, where state officials want it reviewed by the same panel that will rule on a Texas ban that has been nullified.

The situation in Louisiana has now become somewhat muddled, although the conflicting rulings are by different courts — one state, one federal. In a ruling on Monday that has just been made public, state District Court Judge Edward D. Rubin found unconstitutional a 2004 state constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, as well as state laws also imposing a ban and refusing to recognize such marriages performed elsewhere.

State officials are expected to appeal Judge Rubin’s decision within the state court system. The conflicting ruling by U.S. District Judge Martin C. Feldman of New Orleans on September 3 has been appealed by same-sex couples to the Fifth Circuit. That court has not yet set a hearing date, and state officials have formally asked that, when the Louisiana couples’ appeal is heard, it be put before the same panel now set to review the constitutionality of Texas’s ban. State officials in Texas have appealed to try to salvage their state prohibition.

A redacted version of Monday's ruling is here.