RT @24saltlake: One of the couples legally married today at the Salt Lake Co. Courthouse @KeithManleyjr #utpol
http://t.co/...
— @Blabbeando
At the
Salt Lake Tribune, Marissa Lang and Brooke Adams
report:
After listening to an hour of arguments regarding his controversial ruling last week allowing same-sex marriages in Utah, a federal judge on Monday denied the state’s request for a stay.
State attorneys had argued before U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby that same-sex couples who marry in Utah may be irreparably harmed if efforts to overturn his ruling succeed and those marriages are later invalidated.[...]
Meanwhile across the state, same-sex couples were waiting in line as county clerks’ offices opened their doors on Monday morning, with some counties refusing to issue them marriage licenses.
Forty-three-year-old District Court Judge Shelby was nominated by President Obama in 2011, gaining
support from both Utah's conservative senators, Republicans Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee. Lee
said at the time of his nomination he would make "an outstanding judge." He had only served in the judgeship for six months when he was assigned the marriage equality case:
Kitchen v. Herbert. In his 53-page ruling on the case, Shelby
overturned a ban on same-sex marriages passed by the voters in 2004:
“The court hereby declares that Amendment 3 is unconstitutional because it denies the Plaintiffs their rights to due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
Utah state officials may now seek a stay from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, but a ruling on that could take weeks, by which time thousands of LGBT couples will have already tied the knot.