The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday put a
hold on a lower court's order declaring Utah's gay marriage ban
invalid.
More than 1,000 gay and lesbian couples
have married since U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby on December
20 struck down Amendment 3, the state's 2004 voter-approved
constitutional amendment which limits marriage to heterosexual
couples.
Shelby and the 10th Circuit
Court of Appeals in Denver denied the state's previous requests for a
stay as an appeal moves forward.
In filing its 25-page application for a
stay, Utah officials argued that they were attempting to avert
“irreparable harm” to gay couples and their families and that
each marriage was an “affront” to the state's right to define
marriage.
A ruling from the appeals court, which
placed the case on a fast track, is expected by the summer, which
means that the issue could reach the Supreme Court for the session
starting at the end of this year.
This is truly not welcomed news, the simple fact that the court has put a halt to the issuance of marriage licenses to same sex couples, speaks volumes.
This will most certainly add fuel to the fire in other states and with the religious zealots; not only does it potentially stop further such overturns, it may even have a backlash effect in many of the other states who have had similar bans lifted by lower courts.
I'm betting we're gonna see other states seek such halts until the court makes a ruling.
Personally, I find the state of Utah's argument, that they are trying to protect gay couples and their families from harm to be both laughable and insulting, why the court would even consider this case, is even more baffling.
All in all, I don't have the same good *feeling* I had when DOMA was being heard and finally overturned and I also can't help remembering the Scotus reluctance to make a ruling on prop 8.
Conclusion...this battle has only begun and we are going too have to fight tooth and nail in bringing this country into the 20th century.
3 comments:
They can never stop the love and the great sex, so they have already failed.
I thought at first this could be bad news, but then apart of me wonders if they (SCOTUS) views this as an opportunity to once-and-for-all stop discrimination against same-sex marriage? Isn't it possible they could say to Utah that the 1,000+ same-sex marriages would be detrimentally harmed by not allowing for equal rights, thus opening the door to all other states?
-Gregorio
It would be wonderful if that were true...but, that begs the question, then why put a court order hold on any more marriages?
Again, my gut says this is a different story all together and the Supreme Court is just as likely to uphold state sovereignty.
Remember, Scalia laid the ground work for that in his rebuttal on the over turning of DOMA and allowing a lower courts previous decision to stand overturning Prop 8 in California.
We won DOMA, but only narrowly.
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