Sandoval asks federal court to toss marriage law challenge

CARSON CITY - Gov. Brian Sandoval has asked the federal court in Las Vegas to throw out a challenge of Nevada's constitutional amendment that limits marriage to heterosexual couples.

He said the states, not the federal government, set the rules for marriages.

In response to a federal lawsuit filed April 10 by eight gay and lesbian couples, Sandoval pointed out the U.S. Supreme Court itself has ruled the federal government has no jurisdiction in matters of marriage.

Two Minnesota men were turned down by the Supreme Court in 1971 when they sought to overturn that state's prohibition against same-sex marriage. They contended that law violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection of the law requirement.

Sandoval, a former federal judge, saw otherwise.

"Based upon this precedent, there is no federal question presented in this case because the central question involved - the definition of marriage - is peculiarly and traditionally the right of states to define," according to the response written by Wayne Howle, solicitor general in the state attorney general's office.

The attorney general's office represents the governor in litigation. Under a 2002 voter-approved constitutional amendment, marriages in Nevada are limited to one man and one woman.

The challenge to that amendment was filed before President Barack Obama came out in favor of gay marriage.

The federal case challenging the state amendment is still in the early stages.

The Lambda Legal Center, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of gay couples who sought Nevada marriage licenses, had argued that laws restricting marriages to heterosexuals serve "no purpose other than to impose a stigmatizing government label of inferiority upon lesbians and gay men and their relations and denies (them) equal treatment based on their sexual orientation and sex."

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.