The Utah Supreme Court on Friday
granted a stay in several lower court orders requiring the Department
of Health to issue birth certificates in adoptions involving married
gay couples.
According to Salt
Lake City's Fox 13, the stay was granted in response to a Utah
attorney general's office request for clarity in the cases.
“Enforcement of the district court
orders mandating or authorizing Petitioner to issue birth
certificates is stayed until the Court can address the petitions for
extraordinary relief,” the court wrote.
Third District Judge Andrew Stone
ordered top officials to appear at a June 16 hearing to explain why
they refused to issue a birth certificate to a lesbian couple as he
had ordered on May 7. The unidentified women married in Utah during
the 17-day window when such unions were legal.
On December 20, 2013, U.S. District
Judge Robert J. Shelby struck down Amendment 3, the state's 2004
voter-approved constitutional amendment limiting marriage to
heterosexual couples. For 17 days before the Supreme Court granted a
stay in the ruling, Utah was the 18th state to legalize
same-sex marriage.
The attorney general's office said in a
statement that the court order conflicted “with Utah law currently
in effect, which prohibits the state and any state entities from
recognizing same-sex marriages.”