The Solicitor General of Virginia, Stuart A. Raphael, compared the state’s ban on same-sex marriage to its former defense of segregation on Tuesday when speaking in front of a federal judge, according to the Washington Post.
“We are not going to make the mistakes our predecessors made,” Raphael told U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen.
Wright Allen did not ask any of the lawyers arguing in her courtroom any questions, but did say that she would issue a ruling quickly. She also said that the issue will be decided by the Supreme Court.
“You’ll be hearing from me soon,” she said, as she emphasized her last word of the sentence.
The law was defended by lawyers for circuit court clerks in Norfolk and Prince William County. These circuit courts issue marriage licenses.
Austin R. Nimocks, a lawyer representing Prince William Clerk Michele McQuigg, said, “We have marriage laws in society because we have children, not because we have adults.”
David Oakley is the lawyer representing Norfolk Clerk George E. Schaefer. Oakley said, “If there truly has been a shift in public opinion, it is more appropriate to allow the General Assembly and voters to make that decision.”
Theodore Olson and David Boies told the judge that courts have to take action when discrimination takes place.
“Virginia erects a wall around its gay and lesbian citizens, excluding them from the most important relation in life,” Olson said.
