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Utah same-sex marriages put on hold in US supreme court decision Utah same-sex marriages put on hold in US supreme court decision
(about 1 hour later)
The US supreme court called a halt to gay marriages in Utah on Monday, pending an appeal by the state to overturn a lower court's ruling that its ban on same-sex unions was constitutional. The spread of gay marriage in the US slowed, at least briefly, on Monday, when the US supreme court ordered a temporary ban on same-sex weddings in Utah while further appeals to a ruling that had allowed them are heard.
A judge in the ultra-conservative state said in December its voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. More than 900 same-sex couples have been married in the state since the ban on gay weddings was lifted in December. The legal stay puts gay marriage on hold in one of America's most socially conservative states despite a landmark decision by a federal judge who ruled that Utah's law against the practice was unconstitutional. More than 900 same-sex couples had reportedly rushed to get married in the state after the favourable ruling by judge Robert Shelby late last year.
The decision means that same-sex weddings in Utah, a state dominated by the Mormon church, are now on hold while the case is appealed to the US 10th circuit court of appeals in Denver. But lawyers for the governor of Utah successfully argued that the state‘s ban should remain in place while they fight against the decision in the 10th circuit court of appeals. After that, the case could ultimately wind up being decided once and for all by the supreme court.
The 10th circuit has set short deadlines for both sides to file their written arguments, with the state's first brief due on 27 January. No date for argument has been set yet. Equal rights campaigners were hoping that the supreme court might allow Shelby’s ruling to stand during the appeals process, thereby building further momentum behind two key rulings that the high court made on gay marriage in June.
James Magleby, a lawyer for couples who sued to overturn the ban, said that while the halt to same-sex marriages is temporary — assuming the appeals court does not reverse the lower court's ruling — it is disappointing because it leaves Utah families waiting to marry until the appeal is over. In those earlier decisions, the court had overturned part of the Defense of Marriage Act (Doma), which deprived same-sex couples of federal benefits, and allowed gay marriage in California by declining to overturn a lower-court ruling that had struck down a law that prohibited such unions there.
"Every day that goes by, same-sex couples and their children are being harmed by not being able to marry and be treated equally," Magleby said in a statement that also proclaimed confidence in his side's case before the appellate judges. Lawyers on the side of same-sex marriage in the Utah case had argued a stay was unnecessary because the governor could not show who may be “may be seriously and irreparably injured [without] the stay”.
The Associated Press and Reuters in Washington contributed to this report Utah initially sought an immediate stay from justice Sonia Sotomayor, who deals with emergency requests in 10th circuit cases, but she referred it to the full bench of supreme court justices rather than make a decision on her own.
The short statement that the court issued about its decision on Monday does not indicate how the court’s nine justices voted on the question of whether to stay the matter pending further appeals.
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