Six couples have filed a federal
lawsuit challenging Colorado's ban on gay marriage.
According to 7News
Denver, attorney Mari Newman, whose firm Killmer, Lane &
Newman, LLP is representing the couples, called the case “a slam
dunk.”
“It's not often that lawyers get to
say that,” she said at a press conference. “But here the 10th
Circuit has been absolutely clear.”
Last week, the appeals court upheld a
lower court ruling striking down Utah's marriage ban. It is expected
to rule this month in a similar case challenging Oklahoma's ban.
A majority (53%) of voters in 2006
approved Amendment 43, which defines marriage in the Colorado
Constitution as a heterosexual union.
“Plaintiffs seek a declaration from
this Court that Amendment 43 … violate[s] the Fourteenth Amendment
of the United States Constitution, and a judgment to permanently
enjoin the enforcement of Amendment 43 and any other Colorado statute
that refuse to allow same-sex couples to marry within the state or to
recognize the validity of out-of-state marriages of same-sex
couples,” the complaint reads.
Arguments in a similar lawsuit were
heard last month by Judge C. Scott Crabtree.