Same-sex marriages set to begin in Kansas Nov. 11
Barring intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, same-sex marriages could begin in Kansas as early as next week.
On Friday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to grant an emergency stay of a federal court ruling issued earlier this week striking down the ban on same-sex marriage in Kansas.
“We conclude that defendants have failed to make the showings necessary to obtain a stay, and we deny the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal,” stated the order issued by the 10th Circuit.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Crabtree issued an Election Day ruling striking down the state’s same-sex marriage ban. Crabtree issued a temporary stay of his decision until 5 p.m. central time on Nov. 11.
Kansas is one of the states in a circuit impacted by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month declining to hear arguments in cases challenging same-sex marriage bans in five states — Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana and Wisconsin — thus allowing lower court decisions legalizing marriage equality in those states to stand. Because the Supreme Court left intact rulings by the 4th Circuit, 7th Circuit and 10th Circuit Courts of Appeals striking down same-sex marriage bans in those five states, those appeals courts’ decisions applied to six other states in those three circuits: West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming.
Unless the Supreme Court intervenes and issues a stay of Crabtree’s decision, same-sex marriages are expected to begin in Kansas next week.
UPDATE at 6:45 p.m. on Nov. 7: Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt says he will ask the Supreme Court to intervene and halt same-sex marriages in the state.
“Because the federal District Court’s injunction will effectively disable a provision in the Kansas Constitution, I believe I have a duty to exhaust all of the state’s options for appeal,” Schmidt said in a statement. “Yesterday’s decision by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which held that similar laws in four states do not violate the U. S. Constitution, creates for the first time a split of authority among the federal appeals courts and increases the likelihood that the U. S. Supreme Court will address this important constitutional question. Therefore, I will take the additional step before Tuesday of asking Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who handles these matters arising within the Tenth Circuit, to stay the District Court’s injunction pending appeal.”
UPDATE on Nov. 10: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor temporarily put same-sex marriages in Kansas on hold and asked the plaintiffs respond to the request for a stay by Tuesday afternoon.
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