Two Louisiana men filed
a lawsuit in federal court in April charging that the state's
constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage violates
their equal protection and due process rights guaranteed under
the U.S. Constitution, reports
The
[
New Orleans]
Times-Picayune
.
Kristoffer Bonilla, 34, and John Thomas Wray, 18, argue that
they were turned away from the Orleans Parish marriage license
office on April 2 solely because they were both men. Louisiana
voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment
in 2004 that defines marriage as a union between one man and
one woman.
Bonilla, a law school
graduate who is not yet a practicing attorney, drafted the
lawsuit before they applied for the license, with the
expectation that their request would be rejected. The
seven-page lawsuit, which was filed in April, names the
director of the Orleans Parish marriage license office; the
state registrar of vital records and statistics; the state
secretary of the department of health and hospitals, and the
state attorney general.
According to the
Times-Picayune,
the lawsuit filed by Bonilla and Wray says that the state has
"permanently deprived them of the ability to sanctify
their committed relationship and to exercise all of the rights
and benefits attendant to marriage."
In May prominent
attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies filed a federal lawsuit in
Los Angeles seeking to overturn Proposition 8.
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