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Recently, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ("JCPC") ruled that Bermuda and the Cayman Islands do not have to recognize same-sex marriage. The JCPC is the highest court of appeal for some Commonwealth countries, dependencies and overseas territories of the United Kingdom. The rulings regarding Bermuda and The Cayman Islands are, respectively: Attorney General for Bermuda v. Ferguson & Ors (Bermuda) [2022] UKPC 5 (14 March 2022) and Day & Anor v. The Governor of the Cayman Islands & Anor (Cayman Islands) [2022] UKPC 6 (14 March 2022).
In Attorney General for Bermuda, the JCPC overturned a ruling from Bermuda's highest court, the Supreme Court of Bermuda, which in turn ruled that a Bermuda law banning samesex marriage was unconstitutional. The challenged law is the Domestic Partnership Act 2018, Section 53 (the "DPA"), which expressly defines marriage as between a "male and female" and was passed in response to The Supreme Court of Bermuda's decision in Godwin and DeRoche v. The Registrar General [2017] SC (BDA) 36 Civ (5 May 2017), which held that restricting the definition of marriage to a man and a woman contravened the Human Rights Act of 1981 of Bermuda.
After the DPA was passed, it was promptly challenged on constitutional grounds by two LGBT Bermudians, OUTBermuda, an LGBTQ charity, two church officials and The Parlor Tabernacle...