American Foundation for Equal Rights

View All Press Releases

AFER Urges Fourth Circuit to Expedite Appeals Process in Virginia’s Marriage Equality Case, Bostic v. Rainey

February 24, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 2014

PRESS CONTACTS:

NORFOLK, VA – On Monday, February 24, 2014, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and Clerk of Court for Norfolk Circuit Court George E. Schaefer, III filed notices of appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Bostic v. Rainey, the legal challenge to Virginia’s laws prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from marrying.

Should the Fourth Circuit uphold the District Court’s decision, similar laws throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia may also be found unconstitutional.

Adam Umhoefer, executive director of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, issued the following statement:

“The District Court ruled firmly and decisively in favor of gay and lesbian Virginians by striking down the Commonwealth’s discriminatory laws as wholly unconstitutional and exceptionally harmful. Loving gay and lesbian couples and their families should not have to live one more day as second-class citizens under unjust laws. We urge the Fourth Circuit to expedite the appeal process so that soon all Virginians — and hopefully all Americans — will have the freedom to marry the person they love and their rights fully realized.”

###

About the American Foundation for Equal Rights

Since its founding in 2009, the American Foundation for Equal Rights has fought for full federal marriage equality for all Americans.  As the sole sponsor of the federal constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8, AFER brought together bipartisan attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies to secure a victory at the United States Supreme Court that restored marriage equality to our nation’s most populous state.  AFER continues its legacy of fighting for marriage equality for all Americans through Bostic v. Rainey, the federal constitutional challenge in which a Virginia Federal District Court ruled unconstitutional all laws prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from marrying in the Commonwealth. To learn more, visit www.afer.org.