WASHINGTON — With Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban overturned, the legal fight over same-sex unions in that state goes to a court that has shifted to the left since President Barack Obama’s election.
It’s no accident that the state has become a key testing ground for federal judges’ willingness to embrace same-sex marriage.
Judges appointed by Democratic presidents have a 10-5 edge over Republicans on the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, formerly among the nation’s most conservative appeals courts.
Nationally, three other federal appeals courts will take up the right of same-sex couples to marry, too, in Ohio, Colorado and California.
The San Francisco-based 9th circuit is dominated by judges appointed by Democratic presidents. The Denver-based court, home of the 10th circuit, has shifted from a Republican advantage to an even split between the parties, while the 6th circuit, based in Cincinnati, remains relatively unchanged in favor of Republicans during Obama’s tenure.
U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen’s ruling Thursday, that same-sex couples in Virginia have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals, represented the strongest advance in the South for advocates of same-sex marriage.
Jon Davidson of the gay rights group Lambda Legal said the “very dramatic” shift in the 4th circuit under Obama was an important reason behind the decision to sue for marriage rights in Virginia, which also twice voted for Obama.
Judges’ party affiliation is not a perfect predictor of outcomes, even on charged political issues. Legal experts on the left and right agree that who fills court seats matters.
Nancy Leong, a University of Denver law professor who is closely following the same-sex marriage issue at the 10th circuit, said the lineup of judges who have ruled so far conforms to general expectations.
“You don’t want to presume that just because someone was nominated by one president they’d vote a particular way, but I think in the aggregate, Republican appointees are more likely to rule against same-sex marriage,” Leong said.
