RICHMOND, Va. — Outraged Virginia Republicans began searching for a way to preserve the state’s same-sex marriage ban Thursday after Attorney General Mark Herring announced that he would join a lawsuit seeking to have it declared unconstitutional.
Some Republican legislators were exploring ways to defend the ban without Herring’s help. Herring’s most ardent opponents sought to take legal action against the attorney general for what they described as his misuse of the office. The National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex unions, called for Herring’s impeachment, though legislators did not go that far.
“I don’t know what the difference between a dictatorship and this is,” said state Sen. Richard Black, R-Loudoun.
Herring, a Democrat, is siding with plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the same-sex marriage ban, which was added to the state constitution eight years ago with the support of 57 percent of voters. Herring voted for the constitutional amendment but more recently has said his views have changed.
“The Supreme Court is clear: The United States Constitution is the law of the land, the supreme law of the land,” Herring said at a news conference. “I believe the freedom to marry is a fundamental right, and I intend to ensure that Virginia is on the right side of history and the right side of the law.”
Democrats cheered the move as a victory for civil rights. “Today is a proud day to be a Virginian,” said state Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, the first openly gay member of the General Assembly. “We are the birthplace of civil liberties, and it’s exciting to see Virginia getting this right.”
Reaction did not fall strictly along party lines.
“I don’t think he should do it, but I think he can do it, and I think it’s probably within his job description to do it” if he thinks the ban conflicts with the U.S. Constitution, said state Sen. Thomas Garrett Jr., R-Goochland, a former prosecutor.
Herring filed a brief Thursday stating Virginia’s reversal in a lawsuit in Norfolk that challenges the state’s ban. A federal judge will hear arguments next week.
In a movement that began with Massachusetts in 2004, 17 states and the District of Columbia now allow same-sex marriage, most of them clustered in the Northeast. None of them is in the old Confederacy.
Federal judges recent struck down same-sex marriage prohibitions in deeply conservative Utah and Oklahoma, but those rulings are on hold while they are appealed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
