A federal appeals court will hear
arguments in a case challenging Nevada's ban on gay marriage in
September.
In 2012, a federal judge in Reno upheld
the state's 2002 voter-approved constitutional amendment limiting
marriage to heterosexual couples. Plaintiffs in the case, eight gay
and lesbian couples, appealed the court's decision.
In February, the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals in San Francisco agreed to expedite the case, and arguments
were expected to take place in the spring.
Plaintiffs this week filed a request to
hold arguments “no later than the week of September 8,” and the
court agreed to place the appeal “on the September 2014
calendar.”
After the appeals court concluded in a
separate case that it was unconstitutional to exclude jurors based on
sexual orientation, Nevada withdrew its defense of the ban.
Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto
said that the state's legal arguments “grounded upon equal
protection and due process are no longer sustainable” in light of
the determination.
Though the state is no longer defending
the ban, it remains involved in the case. The conservative group
behind the ballot initiative that put the ban in the Nevada
Constitution, the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, was
allowed to intervene in the case in district court.