US: Appeals court temporarily stays Idaho marriage ban ruling, halts impending marriages
An appeals court has temporarily stayed a decision striking down Idaho’s same-sex marriage ban, stopping weddings a day before they were due to begin.
Idaho judge Candy Dale had struck down the state’s marriage ban on Tuesday, and had originally refused to stay her decision, allowing for same-sex weddings to begin on Friday.
However, the 9th Circuit Appeals Court has today put the ban back in place temporarily, holding off the impending weddings while it considers whether the case for a longer stay.
A longer stay would mean marriages aren’t able to begin for several months, as the decision is likely to be taken all the way to the Supreme Court.
Appealing for the temporary stay, Governor Butch Otter’s attorney had warned: “There is likely to be a repetition in Idaho of the chaos, confusion, conflict, uncertainty and spawn of further litigation and administrative actions seen in Utah and, to a lesser extent, in Michigan.”
In Utah and Michigan, couples were left in limbo when a stay was issued putting same-sex marriage bans back into place, after marriages had already begun.
Same-sex marriage is legal in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
Following other rulings this week it is currently also legal in an eighteenth state, Arkansas, with marriages set to resume in some counties tomorrow.
