(CNN) — A federal court ruled Tuesday that an Oklahoma law limiting marriage to one man and one woman violates the U.S. Constitution, giving yet another victory to same-sex marriage supporters.
U.S. District Judge Terence Kern said the court would not immediately enforce this ruling — which would open the doors to marriages of gay and lesbian couples in Oklahoma — pending appeals.
His decision specifically deals with “Part A” of an Oklahoma Constitutional amendment that says, in part, “marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.”
Kern said that “the Court’s rationality review reveals Part A an arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of Oklahoma citizens from a government benefit.”
“The Court holds that Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” the judge wrote.
CNN — which has a copy of the ruling — first learned of the court’s decision via Twitter.
