Tag: SCOTUS

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SCOTUS places 5 states’ marriage equality appeals on September 29th agenda for consideration

The US Supreme Court has officially added requests for review from 5 states – Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana and Wisconsin – regarding marriage equality to the justices’ conference agenda on September 29th.

This will be the first opportunity for the nine justices to review requests from those states who have seen their same-sex marriage bans ruled unconstitutional.

However, the justices may or may not decide to take up one, many or none of the cases immediately. Considering other developments currently being considered on the issue, in the 9th and 6th Circuit Courts of Appeal for example, the justices may take additional time before choosing whether or not to add any of the cases to the immediate docket which begins October 6th.

(source)

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Indiana files official appeal for review of same-sex marriage ban with US Supreme Court

After losing 3-0 at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals last week, Indiana’s Attorney General has filed an official appeal with the US Supreme Court regarding same-sex marriage in the state.

From (ironically) WISHTV.com:

“[We ask] whether the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment permit States to define marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman, [and] whether the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses permit States to treat as void same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions,” the appeal reads.

Most interesting is the fact that Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller says the marriage ban does NOT target homosexuals:

From Zoeller’s brief: “The court does not, and cannot, justify the assertion that Indiana’s definition of marriage targets homosexuals. The statue itself makes no mention of sexual orientation, and as the case record in this case amply demonstrates, homosexuals often do marry members of the opposite sex in Indiana.”

You can read the request below.

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32 states ask the US Supreme Court to weigh in on marriage equality

ABC News is reporting that attorneys general from 32 states have filed two separate amicus briefs with the US Supreme Court asking the court to weigh in on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans:

Fifteen states that allow gay marriage, led by Massachusetts, filed a brief asking the justices to take up three cases from Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma and overturn bans. And 17 other states, led by Colorado, that have banned the practice asked the court to hear cases from Utah and Oklahoma to clear up a “morass” of lawsuits, but didn’t urge the court to rule one way or another.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley wrote that the experience of her state — the first to legalize the freedom to marry — proves that marriage equality strengthens the institution of marriage and helps families. Signing on to Massachusetts’s brief were the marriage equality states of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington.

Colorado’s brief, which was joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin, says that only the Supreme Court can resolve the question of marriage equality. It also claims, according to the AP, that “without a Supreme Court decision, states defending bans could be liable for huge legal bills from future lawsuits if they are overturned.”

You can read the Massachusetts brief here.

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SCOTUS sees more requests for same-sex marriage appeals from Oklahoma and Virginia

Plenty of requests for the US Supreme Court regarding marriage equality today.

Lawyers for Oklahoma couple Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin have filed a request for SCOUTS to take up their case. The couple successfully sued Tulsa County Clerk Sally Howe Smith for refusing to issue a marriage license due to a state ban on same-sex marriage.

Last month the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judges ruling that Oklahoma’s ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional.

Smith’s lawyers have already filed a similar appeal to SCOTUS earlier this month.

Over in Virginia, the American Foundation for Equal Rights have filed what is now the third request to SCOTUS regarding that state’s same-sex marriage ban.

“Forty-seven years ago, Mildred and Richard Loving passionately argued that the Supreme Court must end the unjust laws that dare to tell us who we can and cannot love,” said Plaintiffs’ lead co-counsel Ted Olson.

“Today, almost half a century later, it is time thousands of gay and lesbian couples across America are extended that same promise of equality and freedom that the Supreme Court granted to the Lovings. Our plaintiffs have already fought for, in two separate courts, a constitutional promise they have been denied. Now, the Supreme Court must take up the Bostic case, answer once and for all the surpassingly important constitutional question of marriage equality, and rule decisively in favor of the fundamental right to marry for every same-sex couple.”

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and the Alliance Defending Freedom (acting for the Norfolk County Clerk) had both recently filed similar requests for review.

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Virginia: Norfolk County Clerk files appeal to SCOTUS on same-sex marriage ban ruling

SCOTUSblog reports that George E. Schaefer III, county clerk for Norfolk, Virginia, has filed a request for SCOTUS to rule on the constitutionality of the Commonwealth’s same-sex marriage ban.

This filing takes the approach that lower Federal courts have “subverted” United States v. Windsor, arguing that the decision put the power to decide marriage laws in the hands of states:

The new Virginia petition by clerk Schaefer put its strongest emphasis on state sovereignty, arguing that the Supreme Court’s decision fourteen months ago in United States v. Windsor embraced the power of the states to define for themselves who may marry. (The Windsor decision struck down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, citing — among other reasons — its interference with same-sex marriages that were legal under state law.)

The filing contended that the core issue that is now reaching the Court is who decides the question. “The controversy concerns whether the issue will be decided by state citizens or by judges.”

[snip]

A series of lower federal court decisions against state bans are “mistaken,” the petition asserted, because “the Fourteenth Amendment does not override state sovereign choices about whether to adopt same-sex marriage.”

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SCOTUS issues stay on 4th Circuit Court ruling on Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban

(image via Buzzfeed)

As expected, the US Supreme Court has issued a stay on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which struck down Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban.

The application for stay was filed with Chief Justice John Roberts who referred the request to the entire Court.

More from Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed:

Notably, the court stated that the stay will “terminate automatically” if it does not take and denies certiorari in the case — which is the process by which the court formally takes cases. If it grants certiorari, then its stay ends when it “send[s] down … the judgment of this Court.”

Sadly, this again postpones the equal rights of gay and lesbian couples in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Justice delayed is justice denied.

The question now is: Which state’s case will SCOTUS take this fall? We shall see…

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Former senior NOM official predicts 50 states of marriage equality by 2015

Jennifer Roback Morse spent 5+ years battling against same-sex marriage – first as a Proposition 8 spokesperson, followed by a senior position with the anti-gay National Organization For Marriage.

Morse now predicts that by this time next year, same-sex marriage will be the law of the land across all 50 states in the US.

I’d love to see that happen.  And in truth, this is very possible.

With Utah, Virginia and Oklahoma all requesting SCOTUS to rule on the repeal of their various marriage equality bans, one is bound to get to the high court this year.

We shall see.  Apparently, Morse already does.

(via Good As You)

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Virginia: American Foundation for Equal Rights asks SCOTUS to not stay same-sex marriage ruling

Lawyers for AFER filed their official response with Chief Justice John Roberts regarding a stay on the recent same-sex marriage ruling in the 4th Circuit Court:

Today, lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the Bostic case responded to a petition by defendants seeking a stay of the United States Circuit Court for the Fourth Circuit’s decision that found Virginia’s marriage ban unconstitutional by urging the Supreme Court not to delay the issuance of marriage licenses for same-sex couples in Virginia.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights is the primary sponsor of the Bostic case.

“Virginia’s exclusion of gays and lesbians from the fundamental right to marriage causes painful, irreparable, and immeasurable injury to large numbers of its citizens every day and every moment it remains in existence, and humiliates and stigmatizes these individuals and their children in ways too numerous to enumerate,” said Ted Olson, lead co-counsel for the Bostic plaintiffs. “Courts all over the country are overwhelmingly and with an unprecedented degree of unanimity recognizing that there is no legal basis for continuing to impose this kind of harm on our fellow citizens. There is no justification for staying the effect of the Fourth Circuit’s decision upholding the rights of Virginians to marry the person they love.”

Prince William County Clerk Michèle McQuigg filed her petition to stay the Fourth Circuit Court’s mandate on Thursday, August 14, 2014.

Should Chief Justice Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court Justice responsible for emergency petitions made within the Fourth Circuit, deny the stay request, marriages for gay and lesbian couples would be set to begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday, August 21, 2014.

I would be very happy but stunned if Chief Justice Roberts were to deny the request for stay.

(via press release)

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Chief Justice John Roberts asks Virginia plaintiffs for response to 4th Circuit stay on marriage equality

US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts received a request from the anti-gay Alliance Defending Freedom yesterday asking him to stay the recent decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the ruling which declared Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.

Today, Chief Justice Roberts has given the plaintiffs in the case until Monday at 5pm to respond to the request of stay.

Should Roberts NOT stay the ruling, marriage equality would come to Virginia next Thursday, August 21st at 8am.

I would be very surprised if Roberts did NOT issue a stay.  Other states have asked and received similar stays while same-sex cases work their way to SCOTUS.

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Virginia: Alliance Defending Freedom asks SCOTUS to stay 4th Circuit’s same-sex marriage ruling

And… right on cue, the viciously anti-gay Alliance Defending Freedom has filed an official request asking the US Supreme Court to stay the 4th Circuit of Appeals ruling which says Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional.

The request is predicated on the idea that there is a “fair prospect” that SCOTUS will overturn the Fourth Circuit and so, no marriages should take place until that happens.

Or else there will be “irreparable harm.” See the full brief below.

Should SCOTUS does not act on this request, same-sex marriages will begin next Thursday in Virginia at 8AM.