Constitutional Law Expert Opines on Equal Treatment for Same-Sex Couples in Nevada

On December 16, 2012 in an article entitled "Right to 'vote with their feet' odious" published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, UNLV Boyd Law Professor Thomas B. McAffee discussed the November 26, 2012 federal district court ruling in Sevcik v. Sandoval, slip copy, 2012 WL 5989662 (D. Nev. 2012) and an editorial published in the Review-Journal on December 4, 2012 about the ruling.

Sevcik v. Sandoval presented the question of whether "the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the People of the State of Nevada from maintaining statutes that reserve the institution of civil marriage to one-man-one-woman relationships or from amending their state constitution to prohibit the State from recognizing marriages formed in other states as “marriages” under Nevada law if those marriages do not conform to Nevada's one-man-one-woman civil marriage institution." Sevcik, *1.

In an order granting summary judgment, District Judge Robert C. Jones ruled that "it does not." Sevcik, *1.

In "Right to 'vote with their feet' odious," Professor McAffee discusses the role of the federal Constitution and its primacy over the Nevada Constitution in matters of constitutional protection for fundamental rights. He also writes about the role of courts in enforcing equal protection of fundamental rights such as marriage. Professor McAffee is an expert on constitutional law, American legal history, and jurisprudence.