A U.S. appeals court ruled today that Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The 2-1 vote by the U.S. Tenth Circuit of Appeals affirmed U.S. Judge Terence Kern’s earlier decision in Bishop v. Smith.
The same three-judge panel also ruled earlier Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
The court stayed its ruling however, pending an appeal by the state of Oklahoma.
The case is the oldest challenge to a same-sex marriage ban in the country.
Since the Supreme Court’s major gay rights decisions last year, 17 federal courts have ruled that state same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional. More than 70 cases are pending in federal court including one in Texas, DeLeon v. Perry according to a press release from the Human Rights Campaign.
