Yesterday, South Carolina state officials asked the SCOTUS to stay the marriage equality ruling in that state. Justice Roberts referred the motion to the entire Court and the stay was denied this morning. Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas would have approved the request. This means that marriage equality is now officially the law of the land in South Carolina. Congratulations, South Carolina.
From Freedom To Marry:
Today, November 20, the United States Supreme Court denied the state of South Carolina's request for a stay in Condon v. Wilson, a federal legal case in which a federal judge found that South Carolina's constitutional amendment denying the freedom to marry to same-sex couples is unconstitutional. The order, issued just days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit also denied a request for a stay, means that the freedom to marry is law of the land in South Carolina beginning at 12:00pm today.
The decision from the U.S. Supreme Court comes less than a week after SCOTUS also denied requests for a stay in a similar federal ruling from Kansas. This fall, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in 5 marriage cases, allowing the freedom to marry to stand in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin, which paved the way for marriage across the 4th and 10th Circuits. The Court has also explicitly denied requests for stay extensions in Idaho, Alaska, Kansas, and now South Carolina. Four marriage cases from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in favor of upholding marriage discrimination, are now seeking review from the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse that out-of-step ruling.
One thing is clear from the nation's highest court's actions this fall: There is no good reason for same-sex couples to be forced to wait for the freedom to marry.
Here is the Circuit Courts' Map: