Two more marriage equality cases are now on the doorstep of the United States Supreme Court.
In Oklahoma, the Tulsa County Clerk announced on Friday that she will ask the justices to review last month's federal court ruling overturning that state's marriage discrimination amendment. The clerk is a defendant in the case.
The Oklahoman reports:
Kerri Kupec, spokeswoman for the Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Oklahoman that the clerk will ask Supreme Court justices to review the July 18 decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In that 2-1 decision, the court ruled that Oklahoma's ban violates 14th Amendment guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law.
Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin, the Tulsa County couple who sued the court clerk when she refused to give them a marriage license, issued a joint statement Friday night.
"Although we aren't surprised by the Alliance Defending Freedom's decision to appeal our victory from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, neither are we disappointed," the couple said. "We are ready to see the highest court in the land affirm that marriage equality is the law of the land. We have confidence in our case and our lawyers, and should the Supreme Court agree to hear our case, we anticipate a victory there, as well."
In Virginia, Michele B. McQuigg -- one of two anti-gay county clerks who intervened to defend that state's marriage ban after Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring refused to do so -- indicated on Friday that she will ask the Court to decide the future of marriage discrimination in her state as well.
SCOTUSblog has the story:
Michele B. 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 Oklahoma and Virginia cases join Kitchen v. Herbert, the Utah marriage equality case, on the High Court's doorstep.
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