U.S. Federal District Judge Orlando L. Garcia released his 48-page decision today in Perry v. DeLeon, the Texas case seeking marriage equality and recognition of out-of-state marriages, ruling unconstitutional Texas’ marriage ban as violating the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution:

Today’s Court decision is not made in defiance of the great people of Texas or the Texas Legislature, but in compliance with the United States Constitution and Supreme Court precedent. Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our United States Constitution.

This is the fifth time a federal court has ruled laws prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from marrying unconstitutional and follows Judge Allen’s ruling in AFER’s case, Bostic v. Rainey, in Virginia just two weeks ago.

Following the Supreme Court’s 2013 decisions in DOMA and Perry v. Hollingsworth,  every federal court ruling on marriage equality has struck down discriminatory laws prohibiting the freedom to marry.

Perry v. DeLeon was filed by two couples – one wished to marry in the state they love, Texas, and the other wanted their Massachusetts marriage recognized in the Lone Star State.

The decision is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.

Read the decision: