VIRGINIA: County Clerk Asks Fourth Circuit Court To Continue Stay So She Can Appeal Directly To SCOTUS

With the representation of the Alliance Defending Freedom, Prince William County Clerk Michele McQuigg today filed notice with the Fourth Circuit Court that she intends to appeal their overturn of Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage to the US Supreme Court. Utah has also announced its intent to file such an appeal, but has not yet done so. Via SCOTUSblog:

McQuigg, who is the county clerk of Prince William County, a jurisdiction just south of Washington, D.C., asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to delay its July 28 decision striking down the Virginia ban on same-sex marriages. She asked for a ninety-day delay to allow her to file a petition for review in the Supreme Court, which she said her lawyers would file by October 26. Unlike most other states involved in court battles over same-sex marriage, Virginia allows its county clerks — the officers who issue marriage licenses — to be in court to defend the state ban. In other states where a defense has been mounted behind such a prohibition, state officials have done so.  The Utah and Virginia cases may not be the last of the same-sex marriage cases that could reach the Court during its coming Term, because other cases are proceeding on expedited schedules in other federal courts of appeals. The Court will have complete discretion whether to take on any of the cases, and on which one or more it might choose for reviewing the constitutional questions. The Virginia case raises both of the issues that have arisen over same-sex marriages in the past year: state power to forbid gays and lesbians to marry anew, and state power to refuse to recognize such marriages that have been performed legally in other states. McQuigg is one of two county clerks in Virginia who have come to the defense of the state ban. They took over the defense when state officials decided that they would no longer support the constitutional amendment and state laws that outlaw same-sex marriage altogether.

Back in March, the Alliance Defending Freedom represented McQuigg in her filing to join Norfolk County Clerk George Schaefer in defending against the suit brought by AFER's Ted Olson and David Boies, who now stand a stronger chance of being the team to argue what should be the final same-sex marriage case in the nation. Unless Utah gets there first. Read McQuigg's full filing.