--- description: Arizona became the latest state with legalized same-sex marriage after a federal judge struck down the state's ban Friday. title: Arizona Gay Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconsitutional: Judge Legalizes image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LGBT](/tag/lgbt/) ## LGBT Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Federal Judge Strikes Down Arizona's Same-Sex Marriage Ban  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Oct 17, 2014 3:44 PM CUT  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Oct 17, 2014 3:44 PM CUT Arizona is now the latest state with legalized same-sex marriage after a federal judge on Friday struck down the state’s ban on the practice and ordered that his decision take effect immediately. In a [concise four-page decision](https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1314606/arizona-dist-ct.pdf "undefined"), U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick cited rulings from higher courts to dismiss Arizona’s ban as unconstitutional. “It is clear that an appeal to the Ninth Circuit would not succeed,” Sedwick wrote, referring to the higher court that has jurisdiction over a potential appeal in the case. The judge added that the United States Supreme Court has suggested that it would not hear an appeal in the Arizona case. Arizona is the latest in a slew of states where same-sex marriage was effectively legalized after the Supreme Court earlier this month declined to hear cases addressing the issue. The court’s move effectively brought the total number of states with same-sex marriage to 30, while paving the way for legalization in other states as well. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3516972/arizona-same-sex-marriage-ban/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3516972/arizona-same-sex-marriage-ban/"},"headline":"Federal Judge Strikes Down Arizona's Same-Sex Marriage Ban","datePublished":"2014-10-17T15:44:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:51:30.698Z","description":"Arizona is the latest state where gay marriage is legal following an earlier Supreme Court move","url":"https://time.com/3516972/arizona-same-sex-marriage-ban/","keywords":["LGBT","Gay Marriage","Supreme Court","same sex marriage","Law"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/lgbt/","name":"LGBT"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3516972/arizona-same-sex-marriage-ban/","name":"Federal Judge Strikes Down Arizona's Same-Sex Marriage Ban"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How 2 Gay Men Live in a Country Where Homosexuality Is Illegal","description":"Brave, young homosexuals speak out in a country where their entire lives are illegal.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qq80V8ai/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-30T04:23:28.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qq80V8ai.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3516972/arizona-same-sex-marriage-ban/","duration":"PT2M58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3516972/arizona-same-sex-marriage-ban/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```