Ohios attorney general says hell continue to fight for Ohios gay-marriage ban even if a federal appeals court strikes it down. Mike DeWine was speaking to the Akron Press Club the day after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review judges decisions striking down gay marriage bans in five other states. And the audience repeatedly asked him about the states defense of its own ban, now before the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. DeWine has opposed gay marriage but he says continuing the fight is his professional, not personal, concern. Voters of the state of Ohio voted 10 years ago by a pretty big margin to say that marriage is only between a man and a woman. "If the voters on that same day had voted for a different constitutional amendment that said marriage could be between a man and a man or a woman and a woman, I could have defended that law just as vigorously. Thats my job as attorney general," DeWine said.
The 6th Circuit decision is likely to lead to an appeal either by the state or by gay-marriage advocates. That would give the U.S. Supreme Court one of its next chances to decide whether marriage is a states rights or a civil rights issue.