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Mexico

Mexican High Court Strikes Down Same-Sex Marriage Ban

MEXICO CITY, D. F. -- In a unanimous ruling Wednesday afternoon, the Supreme Court of Mexico issued a decision Wednesday afternoon in favour of three same-sex couples prevented from being able to marry in the southern state of Oaxaca.

The justices ruled that the ban was unconstitutionally discriminatory basing their decision, in part, on a February ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that governments can’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, Karen Atala Riffo y Niñas v. Chile. 

The high court had already ruled in 2010 that same-sex marriages performed under a Mexico City ordinance had to be legally recognised nationwide.

Legal experts note that today's action by the court does not immediately eliminate marriage statutes limiting unions to a man and a woman—the Mexican Supreme Court doesn’t have the power to strike down state laws like that en mass as the United States Supreme Court does.

With this decisions the remaining bans on gay marriage in most Mexican states could quickly fall.

This case could have repercussions outside of Mexico—by expanding this precedent to include the right to marry for same-sex couples in other Latin American countries as courts in those countries recognise that this decision which is based on Inter-American Accord on Human Rights will set the precedent and determine that marriage rights are protected in those nations as well. 

The Inter-American Court itself could be more likely to recognize same-sex couple's right to marry— in a currently pending case trying to strike down Chile’s ban on same-sex marriage that has already begun making its way through the international judicial system.