In
In re Conde-Vidal, (1st Cir., April 7, 2016), the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals repudiated the holding by a federal district court in Puerto Rico (see
prior posting) that the Supreme Court's
Obergefell marriage equality decision does not bind Puerto Rico. The appeals court said in part:
The district court's ruling errs in so many respects that it is hard to know where to begin....
In ruling that the ban is not unconstitutional because the applicable constitutional right does not apply in Puerto Rico, the district court both misconstrued that right and directly contradicted our mandate. And it compounded its error (and signaled a lack of confidence in its actions), by failing to enter a final judgment to enable an appeal in ordinary course.
Error of this type is not so easily insulated from review. This court may employ mandamus jurisdiction when a district court has misconstrued or otherwise failed to effectuate a mandate issued by this court....
[T]he case is remitted to be assigned randomly by the clerk to a different judge to enter judgment in favor of the Petitioners promptly....
LifeSite News reports on the opinion.
