From the Lincoln Journal Star:
A U.S. district judge Monday struck down Nebraska’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, setting the stage for county clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses next week.
The state quickly scrambled to request a stay that would delay the March 9 date Judge Joseph Bataillon set for his order to go into effect.
In the order posted early Monday, Bataillon called section 29 of the state Constitution — Nebraska’s Defense of Marriage act — an “unabashedly gender-specific infringement of the equal rights of its citizens.”
Approved by 70 percent of voters in 2000, the ban defines a valid marriage as one between a man and a woman.
The state has the right to encourage couples to marry and provide support for one another, the judge wrote.
“However, those laws must be enforced equally and without respect to gender. It is time to bring this unequal provision to an end.”