Social conservatives have criticized a
federal judge who on Thursday declared Virginia's ban on gay marriage
invalid.
U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen
stayed her ruling declaring the state's ban unconstitutional.
(Related: Judge
strikes down Virginia's ban on gay marriage.)
As marriage equality advocates,
including the two couples who filed the case, celebrated, foes
attacked Wright Allen and her ruling.
“It appears that we have yet another
example of an arrogant judge substituting her personal preferences
for the judgment of the General Assembly and 57 percent of Virginia
voters,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Christian conservative
Family Research Council (FRC). “Our nation's judicial system has
been infected by activist judges, which threaten the stability of our
nation and the rule of law.”
Perkins added that allowing gay couples
to marry will “create a level of inequality that has never been
seen in our country as people are forced to suppress or violate the
basic teachings of their faith.”
Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel
and Liberty University Law School, called the ruling “outrageous”
and “legally flawed.”
“Judges would be well-served to read
the U.S. Constitution and not invent or rewrite it,” Staver said.
“The Constitution cannot be changed by the stroke of a judge's pen,
nor does it bow to a judge's personal ideology.”
The Family Foundation of Virginia
accused Wright Allen of rushing her decision to put on a “political
show.”
“This rushed release just prior to
Valentine's Day reeks of political show, making her ruling less a
legal argument and more a press release,” the
group said in a statement. “It's disappointing that a federal
judge would so blatantly expose her personal political agenda at the
expense of not just marriage, but our entire social fabric.”
(Related: NOM's
Brian Brown: Judge in Virginia gay marriage ruling “twisted” the
Constitution.)