Bondi Asks U.S Supreme Court To Keep Gay Marriage On Hold

December 16, 2014

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to keep in place a hold on gay marriage, which is set to begin in early January unless an extension of the state’s ban is approved.

Bondi’s request came less than two weeks after a federal appeals court rejected her effort to at least temporarily extend the gay-marriage prohibition, which U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled in August was unconstitutional. Hinkle placed a stay on his decision to allow time for appeals in three cases then pending before the Supreme Court, but that stay is scheduled to expire at the end of the day Jan. 5.

Bondi asked the Supreme Court to keep the hold in place until Florida’s appeals run out or until the justices rule in similar cases. The Republican attorney general is asking justices to intervene to avoid confusion and to “maintain uniformity,” her spokeswoman Jenn Meale said in a memo accompanying the filing.

“In a continuation of the effort to maintain uniformity and order throughout Florida until final resolution of the numerous challenges to the voter-approved constitutional amendment on marriage, the Attorney General’s Office filed with the United States Supreme Court an application to extend the stay. If the Supreme Court grants the application, the stay will remain in place during the state’s appeal. If the Supreme Court denies the stay, then the preliminary injunction will become effective at the end of the day on Jan. 5, 2015,” Meale wrote.

In the 70-page filing, Bondi’s lawyers wrote that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ denial of an extension Dec. 3 “has created statewide confusion” and that lifting the stay could lead to county clerks throughout the state issuing marriage licenses to gay couples although only one Florida county — Washington — was a party to the federal lawsuit.

“The constitutional issue is a serious one, and it deserves appellate review before the injunctions (against the gay-marriage ban) should become effective,” Florida Solicitor General Allen Winsor wrote.

A series of federal appeals-court decisions have struck down similar gay-marriage bans in other states, and the U.S. Supreme Court in October declined to take up the issue. But, as she did when she asked the 11th Circuit for an extension of the stay, Bondi pointed to a decision in November by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The conflicting appellate rulings indicate that the Supreme Court is more likely to take up the issue now, Bondi’s lawyers wrote in Monday’s filing.

But the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which represents some of the plaintiffs in combined cases involved in Hinkle’s ruling, blasted Bondi for pursuing the emergency stay.

“It is unsurprising, given how hard Governor Scott, his appointees, and Attorney General Bondi have fought to keep loving and committed couples from getting married and having their marriages recognized in Florida, that they would keep up this dead-end fight. But with just weeks until the ruling is scheduled to go into effect, it is disappointing,” ACLU of Florida lawyer Daniel Tilley said in a statement. “Florida families have waited long enough for the end of a ban that a federal court has declared unconstitutional. Since October, the Supreme Court has refused all requests to stay rulings striking down the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage in other states. We are hopeful they will do the same here so that loving couples and their children can get the protections for which they have waited so long.”

by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida

Comments

7 Responses to “Bondi Asks U.S Supreme Court To Keep Gay Marriage On Hold”

  1. James Broel on December 17th, 2014 1:11 am

    @Darth Soetoro…the voting of the majority doesn’t make all laws just and fair. Minorities deserve equal protection and legal standing like anyone else.

  2. Jason Di Palma on December 16th, 2014 10:30 am

    Ms. Bondi is exactly what is wrong with this great state of Florida. An unwillingness to recognize and represent fairness to all. She should be ashamed of herself. All she is doing is trying to pander to the stuffy old right in hopes that her career will benefit. In fact she is making herself look quite foolish.

  3. Darth Soetoro on December 16th, 2014 8:47 am

    I always find it chilling when a federal official can overrule the wishes of the majority of citizen voters. The almighty power of the Federal Government to tell the citizens that what they voted for will not happen should always be a signal that more oppressive actions will occur in the near future. Those who mock this warning will be surprised. Those who don’t will not.

    Welcome to the Dark Side!

  4. jeeperman on December 16th, 2014 8:17 am

    Bondi’s handlers are opposed to same sex marriage because it would cost them millions in profits.
    The real issue is if the state allows same sex marriage, it is also a legal recognition of that union.
    And that would cost the state and the healthcare business millions and millions.
    Because those spouses would then be eligible for benefits.

  5. Melissa on December 16th, 2014 5:54 am

    I find it ironic that Bondi would try to prevent gay marriage when she has been divorced twice and married 3 times. Interesting.

  6. James on December 16th, 2014 5:54 am

    So glad the thrice married Attorney General is fighting for the sanctity of marriage. She’s a joke. She wants to protect marriage between a man and a woman so much that’s she’s done it 3 times herself now. Gays getting married isn’t the end of the world. If two people love each other, who cares? Straight folks have been getting married and making a mockery of the institution for a long, long time. It’s time we focus of things that really matter like jobs and crime.

  7. CW on December 16th, 2014 5:15 am

    This woman is making a fool of herself.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News