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Marriage Equality

Supreme Court Puts Kansas Marriage Equality on Hold

Supreme Court Puts Kansas Marriage Equality on Hold

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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has granted a temporary stay on a federal court ruling that had ordered Kansas to embrace marriage equality beginning today.

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The U.S. Supreme Court Monday night granted the state of Kansas's request to put on hold a ruling from a federal district judge that would have allowed marriage equality to start in the state today, reports the Washington Blade.

The stay is temporary, giving state officials and attorneys representing the same-sex couples who filed suit until Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern to file briefs with the high court, which will then consider whether to further extend the stay while Kansas appeals this month's pro-equality ruling.

U.S. Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who oversees requests from the 10th Circuit (which includes Kansas and five other states, all of which currently have marriage equality), issued the one-page order late Monday evening.

Sotomayor's stay puts on hold a ruling issued earlier this month from U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree, which found that the Kansas constitution's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage violated the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the U.S. Constitution. Crabtree placed a one-week stay on his own ruling, ostensibly to give the state time to appeal. The Supreme Court's action Monday effectively extends that stay until the high court decides whether to allow same-sex marriage to begin in Kansas while the state appeals.

As marriage equality makes its way across the nation, the U.S. Supreme Court has sent mixed messages about whether states are required to allow same-sex couples to marry even as state officials appeal pro-equality rulings. In Idaho, for example, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy denied the state's request for a stay, allowing same-sex couples to begin marrying last month, even though Idaho's Republican governor, Butch Otter, continues to fight a losing battle to rescind the freedom to marry in his state. Alaska, which is in the same federal circuit district as Idaho, also saw its request for a hold on a pro-equality ruling denied, bringing marriage equality to the Frontier State even as its Republican governor continues appealing the decision. Prior to that cascade of denied stays, however, the Supreme Court had been in the habit of granting stays on enacting marriage equality in states where federal litigation was pending -- including in Utah and Idaho, before ultimately allowing marriage equality to begin.

Kansas is the only state in the 10th Circuit without marriage equality. After the Supreme Court last month refused to consider cases out of Oklahoma and Utah (also within the 10th Circuit), pro-equality decisions from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals became legally binding in all the states in the circuit. In the weeks after that decision, Colorado, followed by Wyoming, embraced marriage equality, while same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in New Mexico since December.

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Sunnivie Brydum

Sunnivie is the managing editor of The Advocate, and an award-winning journalist whose passion is covering the politics of equality and elevating the unheard stories of our community. Originally from Colorado, she and her spouse now live in Los Angeles, along with their three fur-children: dogs Luna and Cassie Doodle, and "Meow Button" Tilly.
Sunnivie is the managing editor of The Advocate, and an award-winning journalist whose passion is covering the politics of equality and elevating the unheard stories of our community. Originally from Colorado, she and her spouse now live in Los Angeles, along with their three fur-children: dogs Luna and Cassie Doodle, and "Meow Button" Tilly.