Plaintiffs in a case challenging Utah's
gay marriage ban have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a
request for an emergency stay in a lower court's ruling declaring the
state's ban invalid.
On Tuesday, the Utah Attorney General's
Office filed its fifth request for a stay in the ruling as an appeal
moves forward. U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby, who issued the
ruling on December 20, and the 10th Circuit Court of
Appeals denied the state's previous request.
In their filing, plaintiffs, three gay
couples, argued that Utah's Amendment 3 “cannot withstand a
heightened level of constitutional scrutiny.”
“The District Court also found that
the challenged laws warrant heightened equal protection scrutiny
because they discriminate against Respondents on the basis of sex,”
the 61-page document states. “However, the District Court
concluded that it need not analyze why Applicants were unable to meet
that heightened burden because the laws failed even under rational
basis review.”
“In addition, the District Court
found that the laws harmed the children of same-sex parents in Utah
'for the same reasons that the Supreme Court found that DOMA harmed
the children of same-sex couples,'” plaintiffs
argued.
In filing its 25-page application for a
stay, Utah officials argued that they were attempting to avert
“irreparable harm” to gay couples and their families.
“The State's responsibility for the
welfare of all its citizens makes it relevant, as well, that
Respondents and any other same-sex couples who choose to marry during
the period before the Tenth Circuit and this Court resolve this
dispute on the merits will likely be irreparably harmed without a
stay. They and their children will likely suffer dignitary and
financial losses from the invalidation of their marriages if
appellate review affirms the validity of Utah's marriage laws,” the
state wrote.
More than 1,000 gay couples have
married in the state in the wake of the ruling.