NORTH CAROLINA: State GOP To Appeal Same-Sex Marriage Ruling To SCOTUS

Via the Washington Post:

North Carolina lawmakers said they will file a petition this week with the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal regarding marriage for same-sex couples. “We’ve said all along North Carolina voters deserve to have their voices heard, and this important issue won’t ever be settled until a final decision is made by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Sen. Phil Berger (R) said in a statement. The North Carolina legislature banned marriage between same-sex couples in 1996, and in 2012, voters approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. In November, a federal judge struck down the state’s marriage ban. “Regardless of where you stand on the ultimate issue, it is important to protect the will of the North Carolina voters who overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment,” Rep. Tim Moore (R) said in a statement.

NOM and the state GOP appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court back in November.

SOUTH CAROLINA: State Asks Fourth Circuit Court Not To Rule On Appeal

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson yesterday petitioned the Fourth Circuit Court, asking that they not rule on his marriage appeal until the Supreme Court issues a decision on the cases out of Sixth Circuit. Wilson, like his counterparts in several other states, is desperately trying to keep his case alive so that marriage equality can be undone should SCOTUS rule negatively. See the motion at Equality Case Files.

South Carolina Earns Stripes Of Progress

Yesterday the Fourth Circuit Court refused South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson's demand to continue the stay on same-sex marriages during his appeal. Almost simultaneously, a separate federal court ruled that South Carolina must recognize out-of-state marriages, prompting Wikipedia's marriage map monitor to apply the above blue stripes of progress. Late last night Wilson took his stay extension demand to SCOTUS. Barring action from that court, marriages will commence at noon tomorrow.

SOUTH CAROLINA: AG Alan Wilson Files Stay Extension Demand With SCOTUS

Read the full demand at Equality Case Files.

BREAKING: Fourth Circuit Court DENIES Marriage Stay For South Carolina

UPDATE: Lambda Legal reacts via press release:

Today, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit denied the State of South Carolina’s motion to stay last week’s U.S. District Court ruling striking down the state’s discriminatory marriage ban, setting the stage for marriages to begin for same-sex couples at Noon on Thursday, November 20. South Carolina’s Attorney General filed a motion for an emergency stay to delay marriages following a ruling by the U. S. District Court for the District of South Carolina striking down the state’s discriminatory marriage ban in accordance with the Fourth Circuit’s earlier decision striking down a similar ban in Virginia.

"The end game is clear - marriage will soon be available for same-sex couples in South Carolina. This is a great victory for same-sex couples and their families because it removes one more hurdle to finally walking down the aisle," said Beth Littrell, Senior Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office based in Atlanta. “We urge the Attorney General to stop trying to delay the inevitable - their actions are damaging to families they were elected to protect,” said South Carolina Equality lawyer Malissa Burnette, partner at Callison Tighe & Robinson. “We are ecstatic as we get ready to go pick up our license at Noon on Thursday,” said Lambda Legal client Colleen Condon.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Plaintiffs Demand That Marriage Ruling Stay Ends On Thursday

The stay on South Carolina same-sex marriages is due to expire on Thursday. Late last night the plaintiffs in that case filed a motion in opposition to state Attorney General Alan Wilson's demand that the stay be continued while he flails about with appeals. Via the Post & Courier:

"Currently 34 states permit same-sex couples to marry, or recognize marriages legally celebrated by same-sex couples in other states. If history is any indicator, the State's claim of potential harm here is overstated, if not completely contrived," the new filings says. Malissa Burnette, lead attorney in Condon's case, has said she feels very optimistic the Fourth Circuit will uphold Gergel's ruling. It is the same court that struck down Virginia's constitutional gay marriage ban and was among those that triggered the recent cascade of legalized same-sex marriage across the nation.

The Fourth Circuit could rule on Wilson's request for an emergency stay at any time. Wilson has argued that South Carolina's voter-approved constitutional gay marriage ban differs enough from Virginia's that it warrants new consideration by the Fourth Circuit. Burnette counters that the two bans are almost identical. Also, despite a tide of rulings in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide over the past six weeks, Wilson argued that a recent surprise ruling by the Sixth Circuit in Ohio upholding a gay marriage ban makes it more likely the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in nationally - and perhaps halt the march of gay marriage across the country.

If the Fourth Circuit denies Wilson's stay extension demand, he will surely immediately petition SCOTUS, where Chief Justice John Roberts has jurisdiction. If no stay extension is granted by either court, same-sex marriage licenses will be issued at noon on Thursday. South Carolina has a 24-hour waiting period to marry, but judges have waived such requirements in other states on a case-by-case basis. 

SOUTH CAROLINA: AG Alan Wilson Vows To Appeal Ruling To Fourth Circuit Court

"Today's ruling comes as no surprise and does not change the constitutional obligation of this office to defend South Carolina law, including, but not necessarily limited to, appeal to the Fourt Circuit. Therefore we will immediately appeal to the Fourth Circuit. Also, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld traditional marriage. Therefore, we have opposing rulings between federal circuits, which means it is much more likely that the U.S. Supreme Court could resolve the matter at the national level. We believe this office has an obligation to defend state law as long as we have a viable path to do so. Finally, our unique law are not the same as those in other states. Therefore, based on the time-honored tradition of federalism, this Office believes South Carolina's unique laws should have their day in court at the highest appropriate level."- South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, via press release.

SOUTH CAROLINA: AG Calls For Marriage Suit Dismissal Because Sixth Circuit

 Via the Associated Press:

A federal judge should dismiss a challenge to South Carolina's constitutional ban on gay marriage following last week's federal appeals court ruling upholding such bans in other states, Attorney General Alan Wilson says in legal arguments filed Monday. "The recent tide of same-sex marriage cases has run squarely into the extremely well- reasoned opinion" by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Wilson wrote in a motion filed in federal court in Charleston. Colleen Condon and Nichols Bleckley, who last month applied for a same-sex marriage license in Charleston County, want U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel to issue an injunction preventing South Carolina from enforcing its ban, effectively opening the way for same-sex marriages in the state. But Wilson wrote that the decision by the appeals court in Cincinnati supports "the clear constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans under the Constitution."

Wilson's step-father is Rep. Joe "You Lie" Wilson.

NORTH CAROLINA: NOM & GOP Appeal Marriage Ruling To Fourth Circuit Court

Via Raleigh's News & Observer:

Within hours of a split ruling by a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel upholding gay marriage bans in four states, attorneys for North Carolina legislative leaders filed notice in the federal courts of their plans to appeal rulings in North Carolina that struck down a gay marriage ban. The court document, filed by John C. Eastman, a California lawyer and chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, outlines the plans of Phil Berger, president pro tem of the N.C. Senate, and Thom Tillis, speaker of the state House, to appeal a ruling in October by U.S. District Judge William Osteen Jr. that nullified a 2012 amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Though Osteen allowed the legislators to intervene in the case on a narrow basis, Eastman’s notice states that the Republican legislative leaders do not believe that the federal district court put limits on their arguments during appeal.

Read the notice of appeal at Equality Case Files. NOM and the GOP were granted permission to intervene by the above court last month, although the court essentially told them they are wasting their time.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Gov & AG File Motion Opposing Demand For Gay Marriage

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and state Attorney General Alan Wilson, both of whom are up for reelection today, have filed a federal brief opposing the demand that the state comply with the ruling of the Fourth Circuit Court and allow same-sex marriages to commence. Via the Post And Courier:

The 57-page brief filed late Monday argues that a lawsuit filed last month by Charleston County Councilwoman Colleen Condon and her partner, Nichols Bleckley, should not move forward and that an injunction they requested not be granted because the case is moving quickly enough to avoid any serious harm. The brief also contends that federal courts overall have moved at an unprecedented pace already. "Centuries of precedent have been swept away in other jurisdictions in the space of only two or three years. Never have the Courts made judgments so quickly about an issue that had received little attention before now. But the legal proceedings are not over," the filing says.

A preliminary injunction is an "extraordinary and drastic remedy" designed to avoid "irreparable harm," which attorneys for Haley and Wilson contend hasn't been proven. If Gergel grants the injunction, the defendants want him to issue a stay while they appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. "The window should not be opened on same-sex marriages at the substantial risk of closure again should the Defendants' appeal be successful" the brief says. Attorneys for Condon and Bleckley have until noon Wednesday to file a response. Gergel could rule any time after that.

So marriage could be legalized as early as tomorrow afternoon, although the state will surely go through the same gyrations we saw in Idaho and elsewhere. Read the full brief at Equality Case Files.

Tweet Of The Day - Evan Wolfson

SOUTH CAROLINA: Same-Sex Marriage Briefs Are Due Next Thursday

But it will be more than a month later before we could get a ruling. Via The State:

Judge Michelle Childs said Tuesday she will decide later, most likely in November, whether she will hear oral arguments in the ongoing same-sex marriage case that will determine whether bans on same-sex marriage in existing South Carolina law and the state constitution will be overturned. Childs made her statement in a written order filed Tuesday morning in the case in U.S. District Court in Columbia. In the order, Childs set forth the schedule for opposing attorneys in the case to file written briefs and responses. All written briefs from each side must be submitted to her by Oct. 23, she wrote. Childs gave the parties an additional 21 days to file replies. “If the court decides to have a hearing, it will be scheduled no earlier than 14 days after the filing or replies,” Childs wrote. Haley and Wilson are opposing efforts by Katharine Bradacs, who is a S.C. Highway Patrol trooper, and Tracie Goodwin, to gain the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples in South Carolina. Wilson’s office is handling the legal work.

The plaintiffs were married in DC in 2012.

Editorial Of The Day

The Charlotte News-Observer has taken a swipe at North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis over his opposition to enacting same-sex marriage. Tillis is attempting to unseat US Sen. Kay Hagan.

Write the check, Mr. Tillis. If you want to continue North Carolina’s defense of its same-sex marriage ban, even after the U.S. Supreme Court implicitly rejected it and other bans Monday, have at it. If you want to keep fighting a fight that for all practical and legal purposes has been decided, go for it. But pay for it. Don’t spend North Carolina’s money doing so. Don’t waste tax dollars on outside attorneys that N.C. lawmakers have said you can use to intervene “on behalf of the General Assembly” in legal challenges of state laws. That’s apparently what you’re planning, given your reaction Monday to the Supreme Court’s decision to let stand lower court rulings striking down same-sex marriage bans. One of those rulings, on a Virginia law, came from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. That decision applies to North Carolina, too.

In other words, Mr. Tillis: It’s over. You can disagree with the Supreme Court, but you should follow the lead of your attorney general Roy Cooper, who recognizes the legal futility of fighting. Better yet, look to your governor, Pat McCrory, who told reporters Monday that while he didn’t like the justices’ decision, he believes he must respect it. Any other course is a waste of time. It’s an irresponsible use of state resources. It’s a cynical play for conservative votes in your U.S. Senate race. It’s one last slap at homosexuals in North Carolina. It’s not, however, something that N.C. taxpayers should sponsor. If you want to keep up the battle, feel free. But write the check yourself. Or maybe your campaign can pick up the tab.

The above editorial has given local anti-gay activist Michael Brown an enormous case of the sadz.

In what sounded more like a gay activist screed in a high-school publication than a serious editorial in a major newspaper, the Charlotte Observer has officially declared war on people of faith and conservative moral values, mocking those who believe there is the slightest rational reason to resist the radical redefinition of marriage. Making no attempt to hide its disdain for the conservative, historic position, and gleefully mocking the views of the majority of North Carolinians, the editorial begins with three sentences ending in exclamation points – when is the last time you have seen that in a major editorial? – deriding the idea that there could be any negative consequences to redefining marriage.

Brown is infamous for leading hundreds of red-shirted Christians in their annual disruption of Charlotte Pride.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Court Bucks Ban, Issues Marriage License To Gay Couple UPDATE: More Counties Join In

Via the Associated Press:

A South Carolina court has issued a marriage license to a same-sex couple despite the state's constitutional ban against the practice and the attorney general's pledge to defend it. Charleston County Probate Judge Irvin Condon issued the license Wednesday morning to two women: Charleston County Councilwoman Colleen Condon and Nichols Bleckley. Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal of a ruling allowing same-sex marriage by a federal appeals court with jurisdiction over South Carolina. In a statement, Condon said that as a result, his court is required to accept and issue marriage licenses. State Attorney General Alan Wilson had vowed to keep fighting a case in which a same-sex couple married elsewhere had asked South Carolina to recognize their union. On Monday morning, a Wilson spokesman said the attorney general was reviewing the matter.

UPDATE: Talking Points Memo clarifies the above report.

Meanwhile, some confusion over what exactly has happened in South Carolina. A state judge has apparently begun accepting applications for same sex-marriage licenses in defiance of that state's ban, but contrary to some reports has not actually issued any licenses yet. The clerk in South Carolina tells TPM there is a mandatory 24-hour waiting period for all marriage licenses. The presumption is licenses will issue once the 24 hours expires, unless further legal maneuvering puts a halt to it.

UPDATE II: More counties are joining in.

Richland and Charleston counties are accepting marriage license applications from same-sex couples starting Wednesday despite the state's constitutional ban against the practice and the attorney general's pledge to defend it. Richland County Probate Judge Amy McCulloch said she accepted applications for the first time because, “I believe it’s time for this to change. It’s a fundamental right to be with who you want to be with,” McCulloch said. McCulloch said she changed categories on the county’s marriage license paper application from “bride” and “groom” to “Applicant 1” and “Applicant 2.” Like Charleston County Probate Judge Irvin Condon, McCulloch said she is waiting to see how the S.C. Attorney General’s office or S.C. Supreme Court reacts to taking marriage-license applications from same-sex couples. The S.C. Attorney General's office had no comment, a spokesman said.

Photo source.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Attorney General Vows To Keep Fighting Despite SCOTUS

Via NBC News:

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson says he will keep fighting to uphold the state's constitutional ban on gay marriage. Wilson issued a statement Monday hours after the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal of a ruling allowing same-sex marriage by a federal appeals court with jurisdiction over South Carolina. Wilson says no ruling has been made in a lawsuit by a same-sex couple legally married in Washington, D.C., who live in South Carolina. They are asking to overturn the state's gay marriage ban. Wilson says he will keep fighting until there is a ruling in that case. A lawyer for the same-sex couple, Carrie Warner, says she'll be filing paperwork soon asking for an immediate ruling in their favor. Experts don't think any appeals will work.

VIRGINIA: Alliance Defending Freedom Asks SCOTUS To Hear Bostic Case

Acting on behalf of Prince William County Clerk Michele McQuigg, today the Alliance Defending Freedom petitioned SCOTUS to hear their appeal of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that struck down Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage. Today's petitions follow those from AFER and Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring. The full request is here. (Via Equality Case Files)

NORTH CAROLINA: Federal Court Stays Marriage Until SCOTUS Rules On Virginia

Yesterday a federal court stayed any further action on North Carolina's same-sex marriage battle until SCOTUS rules on Virginia's Bostic case. According to the order, should SCOTUS decline to hear Virginia's case, the stay will be lifted. Also yesterday AFER followed Virginia AG Mark Herring and the Alliance Defending Freedom in asking SCOTUS to hear Bostic.

The North Carolina ruling is here.

RELATED: Yesterday activists delivered 12,000 petition signatures to North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, asking him to stop defending his state's ban. McCrory is unswayed:

"We're going to let the process work. During that process we ought to have a stay to allow the current law to remain in place, but this is going to the Supreme Court for all the states," said McCrory. State Attorney General Roy Cooper said he'd no longer support the ban in court after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Virginia's ban unconstitutional. Republican legislative leaders have indicated they may retain outside counsel to represent the state in the existing lawsuits. McCrory said if a court rules the ban unconstitutional, he wants a legal stay put in place pending a final decision. "We should have stay to allow us to implement our current laws up until the Supreme Court decides this."

AFER To SCOTUS: Hear Our Virginia Case

The American Foundation for Equal Rights today filed a SCOTUS brief which demands that the Court hear their Virginia marriage equality suit.

“Forty-seven years ago, Mildred and Richard Loving passionately argued that the Supreme Court must end the unjust laws that dare to tell us who we can and cannot love,” said Plaintiffs’ lead co-counsel Ted Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.  “Today, almost half a century later, it is time thousands of gay and lesbian couples across America are extended that same promise of equality and freedom that the Supreme Court granted to the Lovings. Our plaintiffs have already fought for, in two separate courts, a constitutional promise they have been denied. Now, the Supreme Court must take up the Bostic case, answer once and for all the surpassingly important constitutional question of marriage equality, and rule decisively in favor of the fundamental right to marry for every same-sex couple.” Bostic was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in July 2013 on behalf of two loving Virginia couples—Tim Bostic and Tony London of Norfolk, and Carol Schall and Mary Townley of Richmond—to challenge the constitutionality of Virginia’s marriage laws on the grounds that they violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The same demand has already been filed by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and by the Alliance Defending Freedom, acting on behalf of the Norfolk County Clerk.

VIRGINIA: Anti-Gay Norfolk County Clerk Petitions SCOTUS To Hear Marriage Appeal

Via SCOTUSblog:

Arguing that lower federal courts have “subverted” the Supreme Court’s decision last year on same-sex marriage, a Virginia court clerk on Friday filed his own petition – the second filing seeking a ruling on the constitutionality of that state’s ban on such marriages and the fourth on the basic constitutional issue. The filing may complicate the Court’s chances of promptly considering that issue.

The new document was filed by lawyers for George E. Schaefer III, who is the circuit court clerk for the city of Norfolk. He has been taking part in the Virginia case since it began, and he is now defending the ban, after state officials opted not to do so. Already pending at the Court are another petition from Virginia, one from Utah, and one from Oklahoma. Another is expected soon from Virginia, to be filed by a different clerk.

On Wednesday, the Court blocked the issuance of licenses for same-sex marriages in Virginia pending the filing of a petition by the other clerk who is defending the ban, Michele B. McQuigg of Prince William County. Her petition is being prepared now by her lawyers, who may file it within the next week or so.

In the other two Virginia filings, one by the state attorney general and now by the Norfolk clerk, each claimed that it was the proper vehicle for the Court to review the validity of the Virginia ban. But the two are on slightly different procedural timetables within the Court, and that will be true as well for the McQuigg petition when it is filed.

Equality Case Files has the full filing.

Brian Brown: The Tide Has Turned

"After winning many lawsuits in lower federal courts presided over by hand-picked, liberal, activist judges, the momentum behind the marriage redefinition agenda is waning. Remember, in addition to the Supreme Court's intervention in Utah and Virginia, federal judges in states like Wisconsin are taking notice and issuing stays on their own decisions to allow the legal process to play out. Much, much more importantly, we recently won a case at the lower level in Tennessee! You might not know about it because the media is doing everything it can to ignore the facts. The rush to judgment declaring marriage to be unconstitutional is not only premature — it's flat out wrong! Won't you please give a generous donation today to help NOM continue fighting to defend marriage and the faith communities that sustain it?" - Hate group leader Brian Brown, in a money beg centered on yesterday's stay continuance in Virginia.