TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

U.S. Supreme Court Lets Gay Marriage Rulings Stand

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Oct 6, 2014
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court today unexpectedly cleared the way for a dramatic expansion of gay marriage in the United States, the Associated Press reports. In declining to hear appeals from five states seeking to preserve bans on gay marriage, the court effectively made those marriages legal in Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah and Virginia. Couples in six other states should be able to get married in short order as well since those states are covered by the same appellate rulings. Though today’s decision certainly was a boost to the gay marriage movement, the issue is far from settled. Challenges are still pending in 20 states and one appeals court may be poised to rule in favor of state bans, which would set up the first split among the circuits. Nashville lawyer Bill Harbison, who represents plaintiffs in a case from Tennessee pending in the Sixth Circuit, said he expects the Supreme Court to take up the case if the appeals court becomes the first to uphold a state ban. “Obviously we don’t know how the [Sixth] Circuit will rule, but indicators are that the Supreme Court would take a case if it went the other way,” Harbison said in an interview with Knoxnews.

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