Tennessee officials on Monday asked the
Supreme Court to deny review of a case which upheld the state's ban
on gay marriage.
Last month, the Sixth Circuit Court of
Appeals in Cincinnati created a split among federal appellate courts
when it upheld bans in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.
Plaintiffs in each case have asked the Supreme Court to reverse the
court's decision.
Plaintiffs in cases from Ohio and
Tennessee are asking for their out-of-state marriages to be
recognized on the state level, while plaintiff couples in cases from
Michigan and Kentucky want to marry in their home state.
“Just as New York's (and
California's) decision to expand its definition of marriage to
include same-sex couples was 'without doubt a proper exercise of its
sovereign authority within our federal system' … so too was
Tennessee's decision to embrace and maintain the traditional
definition of marriage a proper exercise of its own sovereign
authority within our federal system,” Attorney
General Herbert Slatery wrote.
Slatery added that the high court was
not bound to accept the case even though a conflict exists between
the Sixth Circuit and all other appellate courts, which struck down
similar bans.
“Petitioners insist that the conflict
engendered by the Sixth Circuit decision now calls for this Court's
intervention,” he wrote. “The Court is not so compelled;
certiorari is
regularly denied in cases presenting a conflict of decision.”
(Document provided by Equality
Case Files.)