Last modified: Thursday, August 5, 2010
IU law professor available to comment on California same-sex marriage ruling
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 5, 2010
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A federal judge in California overturned the state's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage on Wednesday (Aug. 4).
Deborah Widiss, associate professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, has extensively researched the legal theories and litigation strategies that define how courts should think about the right to marry. Along with Nelson Tebbe of Brooklyn Law School, Widiss advances a new approach to this question in a recent article in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.
In Wednesday's ruling, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker held that the California same-sex marriage ban violated both the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Widiss believes, however, that same-sex marriage issues should be defined in terms of equal access to government support and recognition of the "fundamental interest" branch of equal protection law.
Widiss is available to comment on the California court's ruling and can be reached at 812-856-1435 or at dwidiss@indiana.edu.
For another Indiana University expert tip on the same-sex marriage ruling, see https://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/15133.html?emailID=15133.
