States urge Supreme Court to uphold same-sex marriage bans
The four states defending their respective bans on same-sex marriage urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold those laws in briefs filed Friday.
Attorneys for Kentucky and Michigan urged the Supreme Court justices to uphold those states’ bans on same-sex marriage. Attorneys for Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee also urged the justices to uphold those states’ bans blocking the recognition of legal same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.
The briefs come one month after plaintiffs in the four combined cases urged the justices to strike down bans on same-sex marriage and recognition of same-sex marriage as unconstitutional in briefs filed March 27.
In November, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld same-sex marriages bans in the four states, breaking with other federal appeals courts that have considered the issue and creating a split among the circuit courts.
On April 28, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear two and a half hours of oral arguments on the two questions posed by the cases: Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state? A ruling is expected in late June.
Read the state briefs, via Equality Case Files:
14-571 Michigan Brief by Equality Case Files
14-562 Tennessee Brief by Equality Case Files
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