Tag: SCOTUS

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Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denies stay on same-sex marriage ruling

Unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, gay and lesbian couples in Virginia will be able to marry on Monday after a ruling today from the Fourth Circuit court of appeals.

On July 28th, the 4th Circuit Court affirmed a lower courts ruling that Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional.

The court has now denied, by a vote of 2-1, a stay on the ruling, meaning marriage equality will begin as soon as Monday if SCOTUS doesn’t intervene.

More from the AP.

See the order from the 4th Circuit below:

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Virginia takes marriage equality appeal to US Supreme Court

Click image to enlarge

On Friday, August 8, 2014 the Commonwealth of Virginia asked the United States Supreme Court to review the federal appeals court ruling in Bostic v. Schaefer (docketed as Rainey v. Bostic) that found Virginia’s discriminatory Marriage Amendment unconstitutional.

Virginia’s Marriage Amendment has been ruled unconstitutional twice: first in a U.S. District Court and then by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Defendants’ request for Supreme Court review, known as a petition for a writ of certiorari, is only granted upon an affirmative vote of four Supreme Court Justices.

The next Supreme Court term will begin in late September, 2014. A Supreme Court Term usually runs until late June or early July. Of the approximately 8,000 cases that appear on the Court’s docket each Term, the Justices hear and decide only between 70 and 80 cases after full briefing and oral argument.

(via American Foundation for Equal Rights)

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Florida: Attorney General Pam Bondi asks state appeals courts to hold on same-sex marriage indefinitely

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is ducking her responsibilities by asking state appeals courts to put marriage equality appeals on hold indefinitely until the US Supreme Court rules on the issue.

“Neither this Court nor the Florida Supreme Court can decide this federal issue with finality,” Bondi wrote in a filing late Thursday to the state’s 3rd District Court of Appeal. “The United States Supreme Court, however, ‘has the final word on the United States Constitution.’”

Bondi told the appeals court she expects the U.S. Supreme Court will act soon on the gay marriage issue. She cited filings this week from the states of Utah and Oklahoma asking their gay-marriage cases be heard by the nation’s highest court.

“A ruling from the United States Supreme Court would end the constitutional debate, end this appeal, and end all related cases,” Bondi wrote. “The State of Florida will respect the United States Supreme Court’s final word. In the meantime, this Court should preserve taxpayer and judicial resources by staying briefing until the United States Supreme Court rules.”

While Utah and Oklahoma may ask SCOTUS to rule on their appeals, there is no guarantee that SCOTUS will take the cases. And even if SCOTUS does, rulings may not come for a year.

AG Bondi is content to let gay and lesbian couples in Florida wait – possibly years – for justice.

Wow – that’s leadership?

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Virginia announces marriage equality appeal to SCOTUS

Just hours after Utah announced it’s intention to ask the US Supreme Court to rule on the recent overturn of that state’s ban on same-sex marriage, Virginia’s Attorney General has followed suit:

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring says he will ask SCOTUS to review the recent ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals which upheld the state’s ban unconstitutional.

On Friday, Herring, a Democrat who has said the Virginia ban is unconstitutional, will file a petition for writ of certiorari asking the nation’s highest court to hear Virginia’s marriage equality case and definitively settle the constitutional issues it raises.

Bostic v. Schaefer was originally filed on behalf of two same-sex couples in July 2013 by the legal team that challenged California’s Proposition 8, including the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) along with attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Lambda Legal joined the case in March on behalf of all of Virginia’s same-sex couples.

[snip]

“Throughout this case, I have fought for the fundamental rights of Virginians and the quickest possible resolution,” Herring said in a statement. “I believe the district and appeals courts ruled correctly in striking down Virginia’s discriminatory marriage ban, but it has long been clear that the Supreme Court will likely have the final word. I want that decision to come as soon as possible and I want the voices of Virginians to be heard. This case has moved forward at an incredibly swift pace, and I look forward to a final resolution that affirms the fundamental right of all Virginians to marry.”

Clearly, lawyers in both states (and on both sides of the issue) are looking to get to SCOTUS first in what will clearly be a historic court decision.

More at MetroWeekly.

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Utah officially asks SCOTUS to rule on marriage equality

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes has officially filed an appeal to the US Supreme Court to rule on the current ongoing same-sex marriage case.

Here’s the background so far:

• December 20, 2013 – U.S District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby ruled Utah’s same-sex marriage ban in violation of the U.S. Constitution. More than 1,000 same-sex couples to married before the U.S. Supreme Court halted marriages pending appeal

• April 10, 2014 – 10th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case

• June 25, 2014 – 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to uphold a lower court’s ruling that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional

Worth noting that SCOTUS does not have to take the case.  Should SCOTUS refuse, the 10th’s ruling would stand and same-sex marriage would be legal in Utah.

Peggy Tomsic of the Salt Lake City law firm of Magleby & Greenwood, P.C. (currently representing the plaintiffs) issued this statement:

“We respect the State’s right to seek review of its own law in the highest Court in the land, but we also respectfully, and vehemently, disagree with the notion that States can deny one of the most foundational rights to the millions of same-sex couples living across this great land. We look forward to reviewing the Petition filed by Utah’s excellent lawyers, and to responding to it in due course.”

(source)

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SCOTUS grants Utah’s request to stay court order recognizing same-sex marriages

US Supreme Court has granted Utah’s appeal to stay a court order instructing the state to recognize same-sex marriages performed in state.

The order affects more than 1,000 married same-sex couples in Utah.

The temporary stay from the 10th Circuit Court was due to expire on Monday at 10am.  So just before 5pm EST the Supreme Court issued the court order granting stay during the appeal process.

It appears that Justice Sonia Sotomayor referred the request to the full Supreme Court.  See court order below.

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Department of Justice will file brief in support of same-sex marriage at SCOTUS

US Attorney General Eric Holder told ABC News this weekend that the Department of Justice is prepared to file a brief in support of same-sex marriage should Utah, or any other state, bring their case to the US Supreme Court.

From LGBTQ Nation:

Holder said the brief would be “consistent with the actions that we have taken over the past couple of years,” after the Obama Administration refused to defend a section of the Defense of Marriage Act that defined marriage as between one man and one woman, and filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down that provision.

Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled in a challenge to Utah’s same-sex marriage ban, that states cannot prohibit two people from marrying simply because they choose a partner of the same-sex.

It was the first time a federal appeals court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

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10th Circuit Court of Appeals denies Utah indefinite stay on same-sex marriage ruling

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals gave Utah until July 21st to ask SCOTUS for an indefinite stay on a ruling that ordered the state to recognize same-sex marriage.

From the ACLU:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit denied Utah’s request to suspend a lower court’s ruling ordering the state to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who were legally married after a federal court struck down a state ban, but before the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily halted additional marriages from taking place.

Over 1,000 same-sex couples married in Utah during that time period. In May, a federal court ordered the state to recognize those marriages as legally valid, but Utah had asked that the lower court’s order be suspended as the appeals process continued. Today’s ruling denies that request, but does give the state 10 days to decide to seek a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Utah’s Attorney General has issued a statement saying he will appeal to Justice Sonia Sotomayor (who handles appeals requests for the 10th Circuit):

“The State recognizes that pending cases regarding same-sex marriage in Utah impact the lives of many individuals and families and is diligently seeking uniform certainty through proper and orderly legal processes until Kitchen v. Herbert is resolved.”

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LGBT advocacy groups withdraw support for ENDA over religious exemption clause

In the aftermath of the recent Hobby Lobby SCOTUS decision, LGBT advocacy groups are withdrawing their support of ENDA, passed last fall in the US Senate but currently languishing in the House.

The American Civil Liberties Union issued this statement via press release:

The provision in the current version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that allows religious organizations to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity has long been a source of significant concern to us.

Given the types of workplace discrimination we see increasingly against LGBT people, together with the calls for greater permission to discriminate on religious grounds that followed immediately upon the Supreme Court’s decision last week in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, it has become clear that the inclusion of this provision is no longer tenable.

It would prevent ENDA from providing protections that LGBT people desperately need and would make very bad law with potential further negative effects.

Therefore, we are announcing our withdrawal of support for the current version of ENDA.

From Executive Director Rea Carey of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

“If a private company can take its own religious beliefs and say you can’t have access to certain health-care, it’s a hop, skip and a jump to an interpretation that a private company could have religious beliefs that LGBT people are not equal or somehow go against their beliefs and therefore fire them. We disagree with that trend. The implications of Hobby Lobby are becoming clear…We do not take this decision lightly. We’ve been pushing for this bill for 20 years.”

In addition, a coalition comprised of the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights issued a joint statement that they also would be withdrawing support.

According to the statement, the legislation’s current religious exemptions clause is so broadly written that “ENDA’s discriminatory provision, unprecedented in federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, could provide religiously affiliated organizations – including hospitals, nursing homes and universities – a blank check to engage in workplace discrimination against LGBT people.”

LGBT activists are now advocating adding the four words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ensure fair protections for all LGBT folks.