SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that gay men and women can’t be removed from juries on the basis of their orientation.

To reach that outcome, the Ninth Circuit became the first federal appellate court to rule explicitly that laws denying equal protection to gays and lesbians are subject to heightened judicial scrutiny—a decision that could have enormous ramifications in civil rights litigation all over the western United States.