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Judge: Missouri legislature can’t stop KC from recognizing same-sex marriages
A Jackson County judge has denied the Missouri General Assembly’s attempt to stop Kansas City from recognizing same-sex marriages from other states.
Jackson County Circuit Judge J. Dale Youngs on Tuesday denied the state legislators’ motion to challenge an earlier ruling in a Jackson County case.
Youngs in October declared that Missouri’s same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional for denying rights to couples legally married in other states. Republican leaders in the Missouri General Assembly recently filed a motion to appeal Youngs’ ruling to the state Supreme Court.
Kansas City elected leaders did not want to fight Youngs’ earlier order, and the city’s Law Department filed a motion last Friday opposing the General Assembly’s motion to intervene. On Tuesday, Youngs said the legislators’ deadline to try to intervene in the case had already passed and he no longer has jurisdiction of the case.
The judge’s ruling could clear the way for Kansas City to change municipal employee pension plans to apply to same-sex marriages as well as to heterosexual marriages. The City Council will debate those plan changes this week.
Lynn Horsley, lhorsley@kcstar.com.
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