Utah must recognize valid marriages of Utah same-sex couples starting monday morning.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July ___, 2014
SALT LAKE CITY – The U.S. Supreme Court denied Utah's request to suspend a lower court ruling ordering Utah to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who were legally married in the state 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 in Utah ordered the state to recognize those marriages as legally valid, but the state had asked the appellate court to stay the lower court’s order as the appeals process continued. On July 11, the 10th Circuit denied that request, but gave the state 10 days to decide whether to seek a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. Today's ruling denies that request. The temporary stay put in place by the 10th Circuit expires at 8 a.m., July 21, 2014.
The plaintiffs, four Utah 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 recognized while their lawsuit continues.
“We are grateful and overjoyed that the Supreme Court rejected Governor Herbert and Attorney General Reyes’ last-ditch attempt to avoid recognizing the marriages of these lawfully wedded same-sex couples,” said Joshua Block, staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project. “The denial of the stay request means that at 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning these couples will once again be given the same legal protections as every other legally married Utah couple.”
“We hope that with the denial of their stay request, Governor Herbert and Attorney General Reyes’ will finally give up their misguided efforts to nullify these marriages and will finally let these families and their children move on with their lives,” said John Mejia, legal director of the ACLU of Utah.
The lawsuit is separate from the original federal case challenging Utah's marriage ban, which was recently also struck down by the 10th Circuit. That case was brought by the law firm of Magleby & Greenwood on behalf of three other couples. The ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in that case.
For more information on this case, please visit: www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/evans-v-utah
