A federal judge in Louisiana has become the first federal judge to uphold a same-sex marriage ban since the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2013, writing that “any right to same-sex marriage is not yet so entrenched as to be fundamental” and that gay marriage was “inconceivable until very recently.”

“The Court is persuaded that a meaning of what is marriage that has endured in history for thousands of years, and prevails in a majority of states today, is not universally irrational on the constitutional grid,” U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman wrote.

According to the Huffington Post:



Feldman noted that his was the only federal court to uphold a gay marriage ban since the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act last year. “It would no doubt be celebrated to be in the company of the near-unanimity of the many other federal courts that have spoken to this pressing issue, if this Court were confident in the belief that those cases provide a correct guide,” Feldman wrote. The court “hesitates with the notion that this state’s choice could only be inspired by hate and intolerance,” the judge wrote, holding that Louisiana “has a legitimate interest … whether obsolete in the opinion of some, or not, in the opinion of others … in linking children to an intact family formed by their two biological parents.” Feldman said that “inconvenient questions persist” about the recognition of same-sex marriage and posed a few slippery-slope questions of his own.



“For example, must the states permit or recognize a marriage between an aunt and niece? Aunt and nephew? Brother/brother? Father and child? May minors marry? Must marriage be limited to only two people? What about a transgender spouse? Is such a union same-gender or male-female? All such unions would undeniably be equally committed to love and caring for one another, just like the plaintiffs,” feldman wrote.