Appeals court strikes down Indiana and Wisconsin gay marriage bans

A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that gay marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana were unconstitutional and struck them down.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals needed less than two weeks to come back with a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the case. A three-judge panel heard oral arguments in late August and questioned the defense hard over their defense in favor of keeping the state laws in place.

They pressured the state's lawyers, with the attorneys struggling to provide adequate reasoning against striking down the laws.

Judges will often plays devil's advocate during arguments, but they apparently found any reasons to keep the state laws up quite weak. The arguments to support the bans were "so full of holes that it cannot be taken seriously," Judge Richard Posner wrote in the decision, the Chicago Tribune reports.

"To the extent that children are better off in families in which the parents are married, they are better off whether they are raised by their biological parents or by adoptive parents," he added. "The discrimination against same-sex couples is irrational and therefore unconstitutional."

The ruling comes just a day after a lower court judge actually upheld Louisiana's state ban on same-sex marriage, becoming the first federal judge to rule against making gay marriage legal.

U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman's decision noted that perhaps states' rights should come before marriage equality and wondered if gay marriage were to become legal, could marrying family members be next.