State Has Legitimate Interest Under Rational Basis Standard to Define Marriage Without Court Interference.

This case involved several homosexual couples living in Louisiana (LA) that were   validly married in another state and one homosexual couple seeking to be married in LA.  The LA constitution defines marriage as between one man and one woman and statutory law bars recognition of homosexual marriages contracted in other states.  The LA Department of Revenue also requires homosexual couples lawfully married in other states to certify on their LA income tax return that they are filing as single persons for state income tax purposes.  The plaintiffs claimed that LA law unconstitutionally violated their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process, and that the LA income tax certification violated their free speech.  On the equal protection issue, the court determined that the LA constitutional ban on homosexual marriage was to be evaluated under rational basis review because the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in United States v. Windsor, 133 S. Ct. 2675 (2013)  did not require heightened scrutiny and the constitutional ban on homosexual marriage was rationally related to the legitimate state interest of achieving marriage's preeminent purpose of linking children to their biological parents.  Plaintiffs did not suffer discrimination based on gender because the ban on homosexual marriage applies to both genders equally irrespective of sexual orientation - neither homosexuals nor heterosexuals can marry someone of the same gender.  The LA constitutional and statutory provisions also had no hateful animus because the law furthered the state's legitimate purpose of linking children to an intact family formed by their biological parents, and the state's legitimate interest in safeguarding fundamental social change through democratic consensus rather than the courts.  On the Due Process claim, the court noted that homosexual marriage is not anchored to history or tradition and that no fundamental right guaranteed to everyone is involved.  The court specifically noted that the plaintiffs could not maintain that state law against cousins marrying or polygamy were invalid and admitted that such marriages would have unacceptable "significant societal harms."  Thus, rational basis review was invoked because no fundamental constitutional right was involved.  Under that analysis the LA constitutional and statutory provisions are constitutional.  The LA Department of Revenue requirement did not involve compelled speech, but prescribes conduct necessary to an essential government function of collecting taxes.  Robicheaux, et al. v. Caldwell, No. 13-5090, 2014 U.S. Dis. LEXIS 122528 (E.D. La. Sept. 3, 2014).