Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie has
said he won't defend the state's gay marriage ban in court,
Courthouse
News reported.
Two women who were refused a marriage
license in Hawaii named Abercrombie and the Hawaii Department of
Health as defendants in their federal lawsuit filed a month before
the state's civil unions law went into effect on January 1, 2012.
Natasha N. Jackson and Janin Kleid
claim they were denied a marriage license on November 18, 2011. They
alleged in their filing that the state violated their 14th
Amendment rights to due process and equal protection in denying them
the right to marry.
Abercrombie, who signed the civil
unions bill into law a year after his Republican predecessor refused,
said the right to marry was a fundamental right.
“Under current law, a heterosexual
couple can choose to enter into a marriage or a civil union,”
Abercrombie said in a statement to the court. “A same-sex couple,
however, may only elect a civil union. My obligation as governor is
to support equality under the law. This is inequality, and I will
not defend it.”
The marriage ban “violates the Due
Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the United States
Constitution because the right to marry is a fundamental right, and
there is no legitimate reason to deny otherwise qualified couples the
ability to marry simply because they are of the same sex. … By
denying all same-sex couples the ability to marry, state law
discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation, and there are no
compelling, substantial, or even rational bases for such
discrimination.”
Department of Health Director Loretta
Fuddy said she would defend the law.
“Absent any ruling to the contrary by
competent judicial authority regarding constitutionality, the law
will be enforced,” Fuddy said in a statement. “Because I am
being sued for administering the law, I will also defend it.”