he would not defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, saying he believed it violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, on the grounds that marriage is a fundamental right denied to some Virginians because of their sexual orientation and gender.But Cuccinelli says Herring should have defended the law, even if he thought it was likely to be overturned by the courts, as all existing same-sex marriage bans throughout the United States eventually were in 2015, following the U.S.