Utah to Take Gay Marriage Ruling Directly to Supreme Court (UPDATE: Colorado's Ban Struck Down)
But will SCOTUS bite?
This item was updated at 3 p.m. to add news about Colorado's ban.
No federal en banc review over the constitutionality of Utah's ban on gay marriage recognition. Rather than asking the entire 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hear a round of arguments (a panel of circuit court judges ruled 2-1 in June that the state's ban is unconstitutional), the state's attorney general is heading straight to the top court, if they'll listen. From the Associated Press:
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes' office said in a statement the appeal will be filed in the coming weeks. "Attorney General Reyes has a sworn duty to defend the laws of our state," the statement said.
The Supreme Court is under no obligation to hear the appeal, and there is no deadline to make a decision, said William Eskridge, a law professor at Yale University. The three-judge 10th Circuit panel put its June 25 ruling on hold pending an appeal.
The Utah case is certain to pique the Supreme Court's interest, but the justices usually look for cases that involve split rulings from federal appeals courts, said Douglas NeJaime, a University of California-Irvine law professor. The court may wait and take up the matter after one or more of the five other appeals courts with pending gay marriage cases has ruled.
SCOTUSBlog, though, predicts on Twitter that the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case later this year, actually take arguments next spring, and then rule next June. That would certainly end up changing the tone of next June's gay pride celebrations, depending on the outcome.
UPDATE: At 3 p.m. today a state judge in Colorado ruled that the state's ban on same-sex marriage recognition is unconstitutional, but put a stay on the decision pending appeal.
