Jackson County Judge rules the State of Missouri must recognize same-sex marriages

Last Thursday, opening arguments were presented in Barrier v. Vasterling, a lawsuit filed against the state of Missouri in February 2014. The case challenges Missouri’s constitutional ban on gay marriage, alleging that state laws recognizing marriage as only between a man and a woman violate due process and equal protection rights of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs are eight same-sex couples who have married legally in other states but seek recognition in their home state of Missouri. The state’s current constitutional ban on gay marriage (passed in 2004) “serves only to disparage and injure same-sex couples and their families,” the complaint reads.

Today, Jackson County Circuit Court Judge J. Dale Youngs sided with the same-sex couples, ruling that Missouri must recognize their marriages, and that the state’s current ban on gay marriages is unconstitutional. 

Marc Solomon, national campaign director of Freedom to Marry, released the following statement:

“Committed same-sex couples who are married should be treated as married no matter where they live. Couples in America should not have to play ‘now you’re married now you’re not’ as they travel, work, or move across state lines. Judge Youngs’s ruling powerfully affirms that principle. Yet the only way we’ll achieve national resolution on the freedom to marry is for the Supreme Court to take up a marriage case, bring an end to the unsustainable patchwork of marriage laws across the country, and affirm the freedom to marry for all.”

Similar arguments are being heard in a St. Louis courtroom this week. Same-sex marriages are now legal in 19 states, with gay-marriage cases pending in 13 more.