While the federal government announced that they would recognized legally sanctioned marriages performed in Utah before the district court decision that lifted the state ban on marriage equality was stayed, the state felt it was within its rights to rescind that recognition on a state level. The ACLU has stepped in for those 1,200 couples:
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Utah, and Strindberg & Scholnick, LLC have filed a lawsuit in Utah state court on behalf of four same-sex couples who were legally married in Utah after a federal court struck down a state ban, but before the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily halted marriages from taking place while the state challenged the decision. Although the marriages were valid, the state has announced that it has placed recognition of their marriages on hold indefinitely.
The lawsuit argues that once same-sex couples are legally married in Utah, they gain protections that cannot retroactively be taken away under the due process clauses of the Utah and United States Constitution.
The lawsuit is separate from the original federal case challenging Utah’s marriage ban, which is on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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.
Oh, what a tangled web those on the anti-gay side are weaving as they tie themselves up in legal knots trying to find new and fancy ways to say “I hate gays” that will work in a court of law. Something tells me we’re going to need more popcorn.
Click over to learn more about the plaintiffs, including the family pictured above.
[h/t Joe]
