WASHINGTON: A federal appeals court yesterday struck down Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage, in a landmark victory for the gay rights movement in the United States.
The Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals in the state capital Richmond said the ban violated the US Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law by infringing on the right to marry.
“The choice of whether and whom to marry is an intensely personal decision that alters the course of an individual’s life,” the court said.
“Denying same-sex couples this choice prohibits them from participating fully in our society, which is precisely the type of segregation that the Fourteenth Amendment cannot countenance.”
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, said he was “overjoyed” by the ruling -- raising hopes that state officials might soon issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
“This is a historic ruling ... and its effect will affirm once again that Virginia is a state that is open and welcoming to all,” he said in a statement.
Virginia effectively banned same-sex marriage when a 2006 amendment to its state constitution -- endorsed by 57 percent of its voters in a referendum -- defined marriage strictly as a union between a man and a woman.
Prohibitions on same-sex marriage have fallen in several states since June 2013 when the US Supreme Court ruled that wedded same-sex couples were entitled to the same rights and benefits as their straight counterparts.
Same-sex marriages are legal in 19 other states plus the District of Columbia -- but they remain prohibited in about 30 other states, notably in the more conservative South.
Meanwhile, a former defense contractor has been extradited from Iraq to the United States to face charges he tried to bribe US officials to secure lucrative government deals, authorities said yesterday.
Metin Atilan, 54, a dual US and Turkish citizen, had been indicted in 2008 by a grand jury but he allegedly cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and fled the country, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Atilan was tracked down eventually and is the first person to be extradited from Iraq to the United States under a 1936 extradition treaty, officials said.
“Atilan’s return to the United States, after more than six years on the run, sends a clear message to fugitives: No matter where in the world you try to hide, we will find you, and we will prosecute you,” Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell said in a statement.
Atilan was due to appear in a federal court in Ohio on Monday.
As chief executive officer of PMA Services of Las Vegas and Kayteks of Adana, Turkey, Atilan is accused of offering bribes and kickbacks between 2006 to 2008 in a bid to secure contracts related to US military operations in Iraq.
Some of the Pentagon officials he allegedly tried to bribe were stationed in Dayton, Ohio.
US authorities have prosecuted numerous cases of fraud and bribery related to contracting work in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past several years, with military personnel and civilian contractors sentenced to prison. AFP
