7th Circuit Grants Stay To Suspend Marriage Equality In Indiana

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has granted Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller's request for a stay of Wednesday's district court ruling that had brought marriage equality to the Hoosier State. The action means that the number of states where same-sex couples can get legally married returns to 19. In the most recent cases, federal judges have not issued stays on their ruling but thanks to the Supreme Court precedent in the Utah case of Kitchen v Herbert where the High Court did issue a stay in the lower court ruling from going into effect during the appeals process, many judges are placing stays on their orders after a brief period in which couples can get married. This happened in Wisconsin just a few weeks ago.

That being said, the states of Indiana, Oklahoma, Idaho, Utah, Wisconsin, Virginia, Texas, Arkansas and Kansas all have had their bans on marriage equality struck down and those ruling are not going into effect due to judicially ordered stays. If the Supreme Court upholds or decides not to rule on the pending appellate cases that are in our favor, there's gonna be a whole bunch of jurisdictions where same-sex couples can suddenly get married when those stays are suddenly dissolved!

Already some jurisdictions are using the fact that the 10th U.S. Circuit has ruled in favor of marriage equality to issue marriage licenses even though that appellate ruling is officially stayed pending appeal.

Hat/tip to Joe Jervis