Same-sex couples won the right to marry in Alaska and Arizona on Friday, Oct. 17 after separate court decisions ended bans in those states. And, a third ruling in Wyoming meant same-sex marriages could begin there shortly.
The rulings bookend two weeks of legal wrangling, triggered by a U.S. Supreme Court decision on Oct. 6 that declined to hear appeals of marriage rulings from five states. The action lead to marriage equality becoming law in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin, and ultimately states under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Seventh and Tenth Circuits where bans were previously held as unconstitutional.
Within days, marriage equality arrived in Colorado (Tenth Circuit), West Virginia (Fourth) and North Carolina (Fourth) as those states either stopped defending their bans, or subsequent rulings were made under the controlling rulings of their circuits. A ruling in Wyoming (Tenth) came Oct. 17, leaving Kansas (Tenth) and South Carolina (Fourth) as the only states among those three circuits where bans remain in place.
Meanwhile, out West, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down bans in Idaho and Nevada on Oct. 7. That decision led to subsequent rulings in Alaska and Arizona, leaving Montana as the only state in Ninth Circuit still enforcing their ban.
When the dust settled, the U.S. went from 19 states with marriage equality to 32 in the span of just two weeks.
Read a full recap of the developments from qnotes’ national news partner LGBTQ Nation at lgbtqnation.com/2014/10/this-weeks-developments-in-marriage-equality/. : :
— LGBTQ Nation
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