Tenth Circuit to HearFirst of Marriage Equality Cases Next Week; More Hearings to Follow

Nine marriage equality cases are making their way up to five of the eleven U. S. Circuit Courts of Appeal and the first of the hearings in the cases will take place in the 10th Circuit next week as that Court hears the state appeals from Oklahoma and Utah where U.S. District Courts struck down the states' respective same sex marriage bans.  HRC has put together a good summary of the various cases and their respective time tables on appeal to the extent hearings have been scheduled to date.  The summary also looks at the composition of the 10th Circuit panel which will hear the Oklahoma and Utah appeals.  Here are highlights:

As the national spotlight on marriage grows ever brighter and polling continues to show Americans moving inexorably in the direction of supporting equality for same-sex couples, appeals on two cases challenging state constitutional marriage bans will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver this month.  On Thursday, April 10^th – barely a year after being filed in federal court in Utah – Kitchen v. Herbert will go before a three-judge panel that will consider a judge’s December ruling that struck down the state’s ban on marriage equality.  One week later on Thursday, April 17, the judges will preside over a similar case out of Oklahoma, Bishop v. United States, which challenges that state’s marriage ban after a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional in January of this year.

THREE-JUDGE PANEL
On Monday the Tenth Circuit named the three judges who will hear Utah’s Amendment 3 appeal. Judge Paul Kelly Jr. was nominated by President George H.W. Bush and was confirmed to the Tenth Circuit in 1992.  Judge Carlos Lucero was nominated by President Bill Clinton and confirmed to the appeals court in 1995. And Judge Jerome Holmes was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed in 2006.  Judge Holmes was one of two judges who denied Utah’s request for a stay on same-sex marriages underway in Utah after a district judge ruled the state’s marriage ban unconstitutional.

NINE IN FIVE
The Tenth Circuit is one of five federal appeals courts that will preside over nine marriage equality cases in the coming weeks and months.  Other cases that will go before circuit courts include: Sevcik v. Sandoval of Nevada in the Ninth Circuit, DeLeon v. Perry out of Texas in the Fifth Circuit, Bostic v. Rainey of Virginia out of the Fourth Circuit, and four cases out of the Sixth Circuit - Tanco v. Haslam of Tennessee, Bourke vs. Beshear of Kentucky, Obergefell v. Kasich of Ohio, and DeBoer v. Snyder of Michigan.
CASES FROM COAST TO COAST
Presently there are at least 55 marriage equality court cases working their way through the judicial system across the country.  These cases have been filed in 28 states plus Puerto Rico and account for nearly 250 plaintiffs taking on state marriage bans.

Since the Supreme Court ruled in Perry and Windsor, not a single state marriage ban has survived a federal court challenge. These rulings on the merits in the marriage cases have occurred in three state courts and eight federal district courts since the Supreme Court’s decision last June. 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Here’s the latest schedule of oral argument in key appellate cases this spring:
Kitchen v. Herbert, Utah, Tenth Circuit: April 10th
Bishop v. Smith, Oklahoma, Tenth Circuit: April 17th
Bostic v. Schaefer, Virginia, Fourth Circuit: May 13th
Note: The first filings in Love v. Beshear (Kentucky) and Tanco v. Haslam (Tennessee), both in the sixth circuit, are due on May 7^th. Oral arguments have not been set yet.

I suspect the professional Christian set are increasing apprehensive that the money machine fueled by anti-gay marriage fear mongering may not last too much longer.  God forbid, Brian Brown at NOM might have to get a real job!