Courts’ constitutional rulings or orders on state power to ban same-sex marriages kept up their very rapid pace on Friday, as the Supreme Court allowed gay and lesbian couples to begin getting licenses in Alaska, a federal judge did the same in Arizona and the state opted not to appeal, and a federal judge in Wyoming added another ruling against a ban.
A post on the Justices’ Alaska order is here, and a post on the Arizona rulings is here.
In Wyoming, U.S. District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl of Casper, relying on an earlier decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, ruled that state’s ban unconstitutional. The judge gave the state six days (until next Thursday) to tell him whether officials planned to appeal. However, the state’s governor, Matt Mead, had said during a election campaign debate on Thursday night that if the ban were nullified, he saw no need to appeal. Wyoming thus seemed poised to become the thirty-second state where same-sex marriage would be legal. (UPDATE 8:21 p.m. The governor has now issued a public statement indicating that the state would not appeal.)
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