Florida’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban Ruled Unconstitutional; Clerks Begin Issuing Licenses

Ordering Florida court clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle, in Tallahassee, has announced that his August 2014 decision finding Florida’s 2008 same-sex marriage ban violated the U.S. Constitution applied to all marriage-license applicants, not only to the couples named in the lawsuit. In his August ruling, Judge Hinkle wrote, “The Florida provisions that prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages lawfully entered elsewhere, like the federal provision, are unconstitutional. So is the Florida ban on entering same-sex marriages.” Brenner et al. v. Scott, 999 F. Supp. 2d 1278 (N.D. Fla. 2014).