Main | Monday, July 07, 2014

PENNSYLVANIA: County Clerk Petitions SCOTUS To Stop Same-Sex Marriages

Even though she lost her challenges before lower courts, Schuylkill County Clerk Theresa Santai-Gaffney has petitioned the Supreme Court to stop gay marriages in Pennsylvania. Via SCOTUSblog:
The clerk’s application (not yet assigned a docket number) was filed on Friday with Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., who handles requests for temporary legal action in the geographic area of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which includes Pennsylvania. Alito has the authority to act on his own or to share action with his colleagues. The clerk argued that the Supreme Court had “signaled to all lower federal courts” that they must act “to preserve the enforcement of man-woman marriage laws” until the Court itself takes on the issue. That, her application contended, is the meaning of the Court’s January order putting on hold temporarily a federal judge’s decision striking down the ban in Utah. The Court, however, acted in that case only on the Utah situation, and even then did not explain its reasoning for the postponement. It issued that order at the request of Utah state officials. The Court in early June refused to issue a similar postponement of a ruling against Oregon’s ban, but that application was filed by a private organization opposed to same-sex marriage, not by Oregon state officials, who have refused to defend the ban there.
The clerk has the backing of the Pennsylvania Family Association. Of course. (Tipped by JMG reader Billbear)

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