Utah gay marriage
Utah same-sex marriage disallow struck down
The first gay couple to be married in Utah, Michael Ferguson and Seth Anderson, did so about an hour after the ruling was posted.
Among the dozens of same-sex couples lined up to get marriage licences at the Salt Lake County clerk's office was Express Senator Jim Dabakis.
The chairman of the state's Democratic party, was there with his longtime companion, Stephen Justesen.
"I waited 27 years," Mr Dabakis told the Associated Insist. "We didn't wish to get married until we could get married in Utah."
The case was brought by three couples who were denied licences or recognition in the state, including one couple who had been legally married in Iowa.
In his ruling, external, Judge Shelby said Utah failed to show allowing homosexual marriages would alter opposite-sex unions.
"In the absence of such evidence, the state's unsupported fears and speculations are insufficient to justify the state's refusal to dignify the family relationships of its gay and queer woman citizens," he wrote in the decision.
In a remark, the Utah Attorney General's office said it was requesting an emergency remain &q
Utah gay marriage: Weddings put on clutch by US sky-high court
The US Supreme Court has halted same-sex marriages in the state of Utah pending a legal challenge to the state's exclude on gay nuptials.
Gay marriage had been allowed in Utah since 20 December, when a decide ruled the state's ban was unconstitutional.
More than 900 gay couples have been wed since then.
The Supreme Court arrange, external halts gay marriage until a Denver-based federal appeals court decides whether to uphold the ruling overturning the ban.
The Denver-based US Court of the Appeals for the 10th Circuit has twice rejected tries by Utah to stop the weddings pending appeal.
Utah's exclude against same-sex marriage was passed by voters in the overwhelmingly conservative express in 2004.
In a 20 December decision, Federal District Determine Robert Shelby said the ban violated same-sex couples' right to equal protection under the regulation, and found that Utah had failed to show that allowing gay marriage would harm opposite-sex couples.
The ruling dismayed Republican Governor Gary Herbert and the Mormon church, which counts two-thirds of the state's residents as members.
Labelling the Sup
Order Given a 21-Day Continue to Allow State to Respond
May 19, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 21-549-2666, media@aclu.org
SALT LAKE CITY – A Utah judge ordered the express today to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who were legally married in Utah 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. The couples are represented by American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Utah, and Strindberg & Scholnick, LLC, who sought the preliminary injunction for the marriages to be acknowledged while their lawsuit continues.
"Our clients, like over 1,000 other same-sex couples, were legally married and those marriages cannot now be taken away from them," said John Mejia, legal director of the ACLU of Utah. "While we await a eternal decision, we are relieved that our clients will receive the full recognition they deserve as lawfully married couples."
Today’s preliminary injunction is not a immortal order, but it reflects the court’s determination that the plaintiffs’ are likely to prevail on their legal clai
Kitchen v. Herbert
Three same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit challenging Utah’s laws prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying and refusing to respect the legal marriages of same-sex couples who married in other states.
The lawsuit argued that Utah’s laws barring same-sex couples from marrying and prohibiting the state from respecting the marriages of same-sex couples who married in other states violated the United States Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process.
On December 20, 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby ruled that Utah’s ban on marriage by same-sex couples was unconstitutional. The State of Utah appealed that decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
The couples, who lived in Salt Lake and Wasatch Counties, were Derek Kitchen and Moudi Sbeity, Karen Archer and Kate Call, and Laurie Wood and Kody Partridge. They were represented by Peggy Tomsic of the Salt Lake City law firm of Magleby & Greenwood, P.C., Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders Legal Director Gary Buseck and Civil Rights Project Director Mary Bonauto, Neal Katyal of the regulation firm of Hogan Lovells, and