By Richard Wolf, USA Today
Gay marriage may be sweeping the nation, but in Puerto Rico it remains against the law.
A federal district judge late Tuesday (Oct. 22) rejected the reasoning used in at least 14 other decisions and said his hands were tied by a 1972 Supreme Court ruling that upheld a Minnesota same-sex marriage ban “for want of a substantial federal question.”
“This court is bound by decisions of the Supreme Court that are directly on point,” District Court Judge Juan Perez-Gimenez ruled. “Only the Supreme Court may exercise the prerogative of overruling its own decisions.”
The ruling marks only the second time that a federal judge has upheld a same-sex marriage ban since the Supreme Court ruled last year that the federal government must recognize gay marriages and refused to save California’s ban from being toppled.