Saturday, July 19, 2014

SCOTUS: Utah Doesn't Have to Recognize Gay Marriages


The Supreme Court let us down yesterday. They said that Utah isn't required to recognize the marriages of roughly 1,000 same-sex couples there while the appeals are happening.

The NYT reports
The court’s order was two sentences long and said only that a lower court’s ruling “is stayed pending the final disposition of the appeal” by the federal appeals court in Denver.

The marriages took place between Dec. 20, when Judge Robert J. Shelby of Federal District Court in Salt Lake City struck down Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage, and Jan. 6, when the Supreme Court issued a stay blocking that ruling while the decision was appealed.

On June 25, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, in Denver, upheld Judge Shelby’s ruling. Utah officials have announced that they will soon ask the Supreme Court to hear that case, which presents the separate and much larger question of whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
Friday’s order came in a different case, one concerning the status of what the state calls “interim marriages,” meaning those entered into during that period in December and January when same-sex marriage was briefly allowed.

Utah officials initially sent mixed messages about whether they would recognize the marriages but ultimately said they were “on hold.” Federal officials said they would recognize the marriages.
This too, shall pass

1 comment:

Bob said...

So, they don't have to recognize then while they appeal. They'll recognize some day, sooner rather than later. That's a given.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.