Marriage Under Fire in Iowa

Story >

Marriage Under Fire in Iowa

Special Report - September 4, 2007
Iowa’s law stating that "only a marriage between a male and a female is valid," was temporarily struck down last week after a state district court judge ruled in favor of six homosexual couples who sued to have the act declared unconstitutional. On Thursday, August 30, Polk County Judge Robert Hanson determined that the Hawkeye State’s statute defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the state constitution. The ruling only applies to Polk County, which is one of several counties in the Des Moines metro area. According to The Des Moines Register, around 20 homosexual couples had applied for and received marriage licenses in Polk County before Judge Hanson agreed to stay his ruling while the case is on appeal. This appears to mean that the few marriage licenses that were issued to same-sex couples are invalid pending a final ruling on the matter by the Iowa Supreme Court.

“Iowa Courts have generally been at the forefront in preserving the civil rights of their citizens in areas such as race, gender, and sexual orientation,” wrote Judge Hanson in his ruling. He dismissed the county’s argument that protecting heterosexual marriage is rationally related to such legitimate government interests as preserving child rearing and traditional family structures. “The Defendant has produced no evidence indicating that precluding men from marrying other men and women from marrying other women will promote procreation, will encourage child rearing by mothers and fathers, will promote stability for opposite sex marriages, will conserve resources or will promote heterosexual marriage,” Hanson’s opinion concluded.

The ruling has prompted some Iowa lawmakers to call for a vote on an amendment to the state constitution that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. Iowa law requires legislators to approve a proposed amendment in two consecutive sessions before it goes to the people for a statewide vote. In addition to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, over half of the states have passed constitutional amendments reserving marriage as the union of a man and woman.

Bill Brooks, president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council, said: "This ruling again demonstrates the power of a single judge to overturn hundreds of years of established law and legal precedent. The North Carolina General Assembly should avoid such a future scenario in our own state, by passing a bill that allows the people to vote to amend our State Constitution to insure that marriage is recongized as the union of a man and a woman."