U.S. Supreme Court rejected Alaska’s request to delay equal marriage
October 20, 2014
“Requesting a stay in Alaska was nothing more than a petty, last-ditch effort to stop equality,” said Sarah Warbelow, Human Rights Campaign’s Legal Director. “Continued delay would have only prolonged harm to Americans who simply want to protect and provide for their families. Court after court has affirmed that the U.S. Constitution does not allow states to discriminate against committed and loving gay and lesbian couples, and this decline to extend the stay suggests the Supreme Court clearly agrees.” First Time: On Monday, October 6th, the nine justices of the Supreme Court announced they had declined to hear any of the five cases pending before them challenging state bans on marriage for same-sex couples in Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Indiana. This allowed the circuit court decisions striking down the bans to stand and marriage equality to move forward. Second Time: On Friday, October 10th, the Supreme Court denied a request to stay same-sex marriages in Idaho, clearing the way for marriage equality to move forward. Third Time: Friday, the Supreme Court denied a request for a stay on the decision of Judge Burgess, who ruled Alaska’s ban unconstitutional. On October 15th, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had put Alaska’s same-sex marriages temporarily on hold for two days to allow appellants the opportunity to seek a stay from the Supreme Court. In Hamby v. Parnell, five couples sued the state arguing that Alaska’s ban on marriage equality violates the U.S. Constitution. In his ruling, Judge Burgess wrote, “The court finds that Alaska’s ban on same-sex marriage and refusal to recognize same sex marriages lawfully entered in other states is unconstitutional as a deprivation of basic due process and equal protection principles under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” Consequently, in 1998, Alaska’s constitutional amendment was the first state constitutional ban in the nation prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying. The Supreme Court's decision once again cleared the way for marriage equality to move forward. According to the Human Rights Campaign, this begs to question why anti-LGBT forces are continuing to defend these discriminatory laws, in many cases wasting taxpayer dollars for these futile and discriminatory efforts. After clearing the way for marriage equality to move forward three times, the Supreme Court seems to clearly agree that the U.S. Constitution does not permit states to discriminate against committed and loving gay and lesbian couples. Earlier Friday, U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick ruled against Arizona’s constitutional amendment banning marriage equality. With these decisions, same-sex couples are now able to legally marry in 31 states and the District of Columbia, including: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. “Just as Judge Burgess ruled on Sunday and the Ninth Circuit ruled on Wednesday, today’s order from the U.S. Supreme Court will allow equal marriage in Alaska,” said Joshua A. Decker, executive director of the ACLU of Alaska. “From last summer, when the ACLU helped Edie Windsor take down the core of the Defense of Marriage Act before the U.S. Supreme Court, to last week’s marriage victories before the Ninth Circuit, to Judge Burgess striking down Alaska’s ban on Sunday, this has been a great year for equal rights and justice in Alaska and America.” Friday’s Supreme Court decision came on the same day that Arizona decided not to appeal marriage equality there. Decker said, “The Arizona attorney general said that, ‘the first duty of the Attorney General is to be a good lawyer,” and that his decision ‘has to be based on legal considerations rather than policy considerations.’” Defker said, “He correctly recognized that the odds of the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court reversing equal marriage is ‘zero,’ and that ‘the only purpose to be served by filing another appeal would be to waste the taxpayer’s money,’ in ‘an exercise in futility,’ which is ‘not a good conservative principle.’” “All Alaskans want our government to spend our taxpayer dollars wisely. We hope that Governor Parnell will listen to his colleagues in Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho—all of whom chose to cease their futile appeals against equal marriage—and will stop wasting Alaska’s precious resources by doubling down on discrimination,” said Decker. “Judge Burgess wrote that the ‘more effective way to . . . build[] strong, supportive families,’ is ‘to allow same-sex couples the same [rights] for creating and nurturing a family.’ We hope that Governor Parnell will ‘Choose Respect’ for all Alaskans and stop trying to discriminate against them.” With Friday's rejection by the United States Supreme Court of Alaska’s request to delay equal marriage, same-sex marriages began again today, Monday. Alaska Governor Sean Parnell (R-AK) announced on October 12, 2014, that the State will appeal the ruling by the U.S. District Court. Governor Parnell said in his October 12th announcement, “As Alaska’s governor, I have a duty to defend and uphold the law and the Alaska Constitution.” Parnell said, “Although the district court [Sunday] may have been bound by the recent Ninth Circuit panel opinion, the status of that opinion and the law in general in this area is in flux. I will defend our constitution.” The State of Alaska took the position that the definition of marriage should be left to the democratic process of the states. The State of Alaska stated in its brief to the district court, “The question of whether to define marriage to include the right to marry someone of the same sex is an important question of public policy. But it is a decision for the citizenry to make through the democratic process, not the judiciary.”
Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews
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