America
Bobby Jindal falls in line on same-sex marriage
By
By Arun KumarWashington, July 3
One week after the US
Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples can marry nationwide and
states cannot ban such marriages, Louisiana's Indian-American governor
Bobby Jindal has finally fallen in line.
The Republican
presidential candidate had held off on abiding by the top court's ruling
until a lower federal court ordered the state to do so Thursday,
leaving him no legal path to maintain the state's ban on same-sex
marriage.
After the court ruling, Louisiana officials on Thursday
stopped enforcing the state's same-sex marriage ban and started issuing
marriage licenses.
Jindal's spokesman, Mike Reed, told BuzzFeed
News on Thursday that the court order directs state agencies "to comply
and all questions about processing benefits should be directed to them."
Jindal
was initially defiant when the Supreme Court ruled Friday, denouncing
the decision in a statement from his presidential campaign as an "all
out assault against the religious freedom rights of Christians who
disagree."
Jindal's office also said Louisiana's policy would
remain unchanged until the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals acted, adding
that officials could continue to decline issuing marriage licenses to
same-sex couples on religious grounds.
"If any such state
employee or official who asserts a religious objection is faced with a
legal challenge for doing so, numerous attorneys have committed to
defend their rights free of charge, subject to the facts of each case,"
Jindal's office said in a memo.
Though Jindal acknowledged on NBC
Sunday that "We don't have a choice" and "Our agencies will comply with
the court order" Louisiana state agencies continued to decline to issue
licenses to same-sex couples.
Then on Wednesday, the 5th Circuit
directed district courts in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas to issue
orders ending enforcement of same-sex marriage bans.
But even then, Reed said state agencies would "follow the Louisiana Constitution until the District Court orders us otherwise."
On Thursday, the Eastern District Court of Louisiana issued that ruling and Jindal fell in line.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])