A judge for the US District Court for the District of South Carolina [official website] ordered [opinion, PDF] state officials on Wednesday to stop enforcing South Carolina’s same-sex marriage ban. Judge Richard Mark Gergel based this decision on a recent US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit opinion on Virginia, which held [opinion, PDF] that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment [text] creates a fundamental right for same-sex couples to marry. The Fourth Circuit includes South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Same-sex marriage opponents argued that the Fourth Circuit decision should not be binding because marital matters are to be reserved for the states to decide. The judge disagreed, reasoning that because South Carolina is part of the Fourth Circuit, the decision is binding on South Carolina: “The [Fourth Circuit decision] controls the disposition of the issues before this court and establishes, without question, the right of Plaintiffs to marry as sames sex partners. The arguments of Defendant Wilson simply attempt to relitigate matters already addressed and resolved in [the Fourth Circuit decision].”

Last week the US District for the Southern District of West Virginia [official website] struck down [JURIST report] the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, also citing the Fourth Circuit decision. Also last week the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld same-sex marriage bans [JURIST report] in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The ruling creates a circuit split, as the US Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuits [JURIST reports] have ruled same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional. Last month the US Supreme Court [official website] declined to hear [JURIST report] seven pending same-sex marriage cases, allowing those appeals court rulings to stand and effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in several states.