Utah files petition seeking Supreme Court review of marriage case

August 05, 2014

Today, the state of Utah filed a writ of certiorari seeking review from the United States Supreme Court in Kitchen v. Herbert, a legal challenge to Utah's constitutional amendment restricting marriage to different-sex couples. The Utah amendment was struck down in a December 2013 ruling, which was affirmed in June by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. 

This is the first petition to be filed seeking review in a marriage case by the nation's highest court. Defendants in cases out of Oklahoma (Bishop v. Smith and Bostic v. Schaefer) have also indicated that they will file similar petitions. 

Read the full petition HERE. 

After the petitions in all three cases are filed, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to take up a case, likely before January 2015. If the Court decides to hear one or more marriage cases, oral arguments will be heard in the spring, with a ruling expected by June 2015.

Freedom to Marry National Campaign Director Marc Solomon said today:

Today's filing in the Utah case paves the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a marriage case later this year and bring national resolution on marriage once and for all. Every day, hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples and their children are suffering the tangible harms of not being free to marry. The sting of discrimination and the crazy quilt of marriage laws are not just wrong but unconstitutional. The momentum is clear, the hardships of denial are real, and the country is ready for the High Court to act.

Since last June, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the core of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, 35 consecutive rulings have come down in favor of the freedom to marry in state, federal, and federal appellate courts. Marriage litigation is pending in every state without the freedom to marry, and pro-marriage decisions are pending before federal appellate courts in the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, and 10th Circuits. 

Freedom to Marry's Litigation Resource tracks nearly 80 marriage cases in the courts.