Another day, another major LGBT court victory - Ohio!

Haven't seen this diaried here yet.  A federal judge in Ohio, Judge Timothy S. Black, has ruled that, under Windsor, Lawrence, and the Fourteenth Amendment, Ohio's state constitutional prohibition on the recognition of out-of-state gay marriages is invalid unconstitutional:

The Court finds and declares that Article 15, Section 11, of the Ohio Constitution, and Ohio Revised Code Section 3101.01(C), violate rights secured by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in that same-sex couples married in jurisdictions where same-sex marriage is lawful, who seek to have their out-of-state marriage recognized and accepted as legal in Ohio, are denied their fundamental right to marriage recognition without due process of law; and are denied their fundamental right to equal protection of the laws when Ohio does recognize comparable heterosexual marriages from other jurisdictions, even if obtained to circumvent Ohio law.

The ruling itself reads very similar to Windsor and to the recent New Mexico and Utah rulings, making it very clear that if the same judge was to receive a more general marriage equality case, he'd be likely to find in favor of LGBT rights there, too.  In fact, his ruling, should it be upheld on appeal, sets a very strong precedent for such a case, as it establishes the major tenets of such a case.  He finds both that heightened scrutiny is called for, in that gays meet the four requirements to be recognized as a suspect class, and that even in the absence of heightened scrutiny, the law fails to meet the most basic constitutional requirement of a rational (non-animus) basis.  While he does not rule directly on Section 2 of DOMA (which survived Windsor), he does state in the footnotes "Although Section 2 of DOMA is not specifically before this Court, the implications of today’s ruling speak for themselves." He also directly calls out the GOP as providing evidence of historical and continuuing persecution of gays (one of the standards for recognition as a 'suspect class'):

The Republican Party in its 2012 Platform reaffirmed its support for a Constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, and baselessly alleged that supporters of same-sex marriage rights were engaged in “hate campaigns, threats of violence, and vandalism . . . against advocates of traditional marriage.” (Doc. 53-1 at 26).
...
These are just some of the most egregious examples of discrimination against gays and lesbians at the hands of both federal and state governments, their officials, and one of the two primary political parties in our country, and based on these examples alone, “[i]t is easy to conclude that homosexuals have suffered a history of discrimination.” Windsor, 699 F.3d at 182;

While the ruling does not legalize marriage in the state, it appears to require full recognition of marriages performed elsewhere  [EDIT: This is unclear, see updates below...].  Given the increasing availability of marriage equality in the NorthEast, this is a huge step forward for LGBT Ohioans.  It also lays clear groundwork for full marriage equality.

So...  Thank you to Judge Black of Ohio, and to Judge Shelby of Utah, and to President Obama, for both of these appointments.  It's been a damn fine couple of days for marriage.