A Penn State Dickinson School of Law professor said Saturday that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s new declaration on same-sex marriage Saturday won’t have any immediate impact on state level courts in Pennsylvania.
A marriage equality rally takes place in front of the federal courthouse in Harrisburg last March, led by the Central Pennsylvania chapter of Marriage Equality for Pennsylvania and the Capital Region Stonewall Democrats. 03/26/2013 Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com
Holder, in a speech to Human Rights Campaign, announced that effective Monday, he would insist that his attorneys apply full marriage rights in all federal court actions to any lawfully-married same-sex couples.
Dara Purvis, an assistant professor with expertise in gender law issues, said the attorney general’s declaration will have no immediate impact in state courts across Pennsylvania, because they are still guided by the state’s “one-man, one-woman” law.
A change in Pennsylvania's courts, she said, would require a judicial decision invalidating Pennsylvania's current marriage law – a direct challenge is set for trial this summer - or action to reverse it in the General Assembly.
But Holder’s declaration will apply immediately in all federal courts – including bankruptcy courts here - to any gay or lesbian couples who have been married in one of the 17 states that now recognize same-sex marriage.
It was not immediately clear Saturday how many legally married gay couples reside in Pennsylvania.
Purvis said Holder's message does flow naturally from the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 decision striking down the federal "Defense of Marriage Act."
And while it is sure to be helpful to some gay or lesbian couples here, she also said it’s greatest immediate weight in Pennsylvania may lie in its symbolic impact.
“For the face of federal law enforcement to announce that we are now going to be on the other side of this issue from where we have been for the last 20 years, I think this just makes another strong contribution to a sense that the tide is turning on this issue nationwide,” Purvis said.
Not including Utah or Oklahoma, where federal courts have recently ruled bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, 27 states still have constitutional prohibitions on same-sex marriage.
Pennsylvania is among four more that do not permit it through state laws, though Pennsylvania is now the only northeastern state that does not recognize gay marriages.
A trial is tentatively set to begin June 9 in Harrisburg on the suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of 23 Pennsylvania residents seeking either the right to marry here, or state recognition of marriages performed elsewhere.