IDAHO: Governor Asks Ninth Circuit Court To Stop Friday's Same-Sex Marriages

Having been rejected today by the district court that overturned Idaho's marriage ban, Gov. Butch Otter (seriously) tonight took his stay demand to the Ninth Circuit Court. Same-sex marriages are due to commence Friday morning. Chris Geidner reports at Buzzfeed:

“Absent the stay requested by Governor Otter’s emergency motion, there will be a repetition in Idaho of the unseemly chaos, confusion, conflict, uncertainty, and spawn of further litigation and administrative actions seen in Utah and, to a lesser extent, in Michigan,” lawyers for Otter wrote. Specifically, Otter pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to issue a stay during the appeal of the case challenging Utah’s marriage ban as a reason to grant the stay.

In issuing the stay in the Utah case, the lawyers for Otter wrote that “the United States Supreme Court made clear that it will decide the constitutionality of man-woman marriage and until that time no lower court decision holding against man-woman marriage should operate to allow same-sex couples to marry or have their marriages recognized contrary to the law of their particular States.” The brief is signed by Otter’s new outside counsel as of Wednesday, Monte Stewart. Stewart is one of the outside lawyers helping Utah in its defense of its marriage ban, as well.

Tonight's filing by Otter says if the Ninth Circuit refuses his request for a stay pending appeal, they should at least delay Friday's start of same-sex marriages until he has time to appeal to SCOTUS.

CORRECTION: In the first draft of this post I wrongly stated that Idaho's marriages are due to start tomorrow. The correct start time is Friday morning. Hey, I've been blogging since 7AM!