The US supreme court has temporarily blocked an appeals court ruling on same-sex marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada that would have allowed gay couples to marry in the world's wedding capital Las Vegas.
Justice Anthony Kennedy made his order after Idaho sought an emergency stay on the ninth US circuit court of appeals ruling on Tuesday, striking down same-sex marriages in the two states. The judge has asked supporters of same-sex marriage to file a response to Idaho's application by this afternoon.
The supreme court is unlikely to block the lower court ruling for long, given that it has permitted gay marriage bans in other states to fall.
The ruling of the San Francisco-based appeals court could in time extend the tide of same-sex marriage approvals sweeping the US to 35 states.
The supreme court judge’s temporary block came just hours before Las Vegas was due to begin accepting marriage applications from same-sex couples.
The ninth circuit court ruled that equal protection rights for gay couples were violated by same-sex marriage bans in the two states. Alaska, Arizona and Montana could follow as they fall into the same judicial circuit, although legal challenges to same-sex marriage bans are still before lower courts in those states.
Judge Stephen Reinhardt, writing a unanimous ruling for the three-judge court, said that the gay marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada "impose profound legal, financial, social and psychic harms on numerous citizens of those states".
He dismissed the claim that same-sex marriages would devalue traditional marriage, leading to more out-of-wedlock births.
“This proposition reflects a crass and callous view of parental love and the parental bond that is not worthy of response,” he wrote.
The latest ruling came two days after the supreme court refused to review the decision of lower courts to reject gay-marriage bans in five states, a decision that has implications for gay unions in a further six states.
That ruling increased the number of states that allow same-sex marriage from 19 to 24 along with the District of Columbia and will spur legal approval for gay unions to be recognised in 30 states. Tuesday’s ruling is likely to raise that to 35.
Buoyed by an American public that has become increasingly in favour of same-sex marriage over the past decade, state courts have passed measures allowing gay and lesbians to tie the knot as a divided US Congress has shown unwillingness to tackle the issue at federal level and the supreme court has been reluctant to act as arbiter in the absence of legislative action.
The last time America’s highest court was asked to consider whether gay marriage was constitutional, the nine justices ruled in June 2013 in the case of Hollingsworth v Perry, which challenged California’s same-sex marriage laws, that the case did not have proper standing before the court. This ruling in effect granted gay and lesbian couples the legal right to marry in the state.
