Georgia State University's Tanya Washington, an associate professor of law, is available to discuss the Supreme Court's actions on same-sex marriage today. The court opened same-sex marriage to five states and potentially 30 in total.
Washington said of Georgia's case and the national picture:
"The Supreme Court just announced its decision not to review any of the same-sex marriage cases on appeal. The Supreme Court's decision leaves intact lower court decisions to invalidate marriage bans in 5 states and it is sure to energize efforts already underway to challenge existing bans in other states, including Georgia.
"The decision underscores my observation that the Georgia attorney general is fighting an uphill battle in defending Georgia's ban. The decisions in the cases that sought Supreme Court review aren't binding on the Georgia court; however, Georgia is presenting the same arguments based on the same evidence that has been rejected in more than 40 other cases, as providing inadequate constitutional support for marriage bans. In light of political and jurisprudential realities, the question remains whether it is wise to spend judicial resources waging a losing battle.
Washington, a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, previously clerked for Chief Judge Robert M. Bell on the Maryland Court of Appeals. She has also practiced toxic tort defense litigation in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. offices of Piper, Marbury, Rudnick & Wolfe. She also served at Harvard Law School as the Albert M. Sacks Research Fellow and A. Leon Higginbotham Research Fellow before completing her LL.M.
For more information, including links to her publications, visit http://law.gsu.edu/profile/tanya-monique-washington/.
RSS