Puerto Rico Gay-Marriage Ban Upheld

A federal district judge has dismissed a challenge to Puerto Rico’s law limiting marriage to one man and one woman. Judge Juan Perez-Gimenez concluded that the ban was permitted through the Supreme Court’s summary rejection of same-sex marriage claims in Baker v. Nelson in 1972. That view has been rejected by every other federal court since United States v. Windsor on the grounds that doctrinal changes have eroded Baker v. Nelson. Perez-Jimenez, who was named to the bench by President Carter, becomes the first Democrat-appointed judge to rule against same-sex marriage since the Windsor case. His decision heightens anticipation of what other judges now considering same-sex-marriage cases may do.