US: Arkansas Attorney General asks courts to dismiss same-sex marriage lawsuits

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The Arkansas Attorney General’s Office has asked a federal judge and the state Supreme Court to dismiss lawsuits challenging the state’s same-sex marriage ban.

The office filed the motions Wednesday, asking to stay proceedings while the US Supreme Court waits to hear similar same-sex marriage cases.

The motions stated: “Without a stay of these proceedings, the parties and the court will suffer the hardship of unnecessary and unwarranted litigation, and the parties and court could suffer the hardship of a ruling quickly reversed or modified by the United States Supreme Court.”

The motion argued the stay wouldn’t hurt the couples suing the state because the issue could still be taken up if the Supreme Court decides not to rule.

Last week, Arkansas’s Attorney General Dustin McDaniel launched a bid to maintain the state’s constitutional marriage ban, despite claiming to support same-sex marriage.

Attorneys in the same-sex marriage lawsuits asked a federal judge to grant summary judgment on the case in July.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently said that she expects her court to rule on the issue of same-sex marriage by 2016 at latest.