US: Kansas asks Supreme Court to stop impending same-sex weddings
The state of Kansas has asked the Supreme Court to halt same-sex weddings, which are due to begin statewide on Tuesday.
US District Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled earlier this week that the states’s ban on equal marriage violates the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.
Weddings are set to begin next Tuesday, after the Attorney General Derek Schmidt had his desperate attempt to stop them rejected by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
However, Mr Schmidt has now taken his case even further – asking the Supreme Court to halt the marriages.
He said: “Because the federal District Court’s injunction will effectively disable a provision in the Kansas Constitution, I believe I have a duty to exhaust all of the state’s options for appeal.
“I will take the additional step before Tuesday of asking Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who handles these matters arising within the Tenth Circuit, to stay the District Court’s injunction pending appeal.”
It is unclear on what grounds a stay could be granted, as the Supreme Court has already declined to hear a same-sex marriage ban case from the 10th Circuit.
The first same-sex weddings took place in Kansas last month, just 60 miles down the road from the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, after a ruling affecting only one county.
The notoriously homophobic Church has filed a bizarre legal brief against equal marriage, claiming: “If this Court requires Kansas officials to treat what God has called abominable as something to be respected, revered, and blessed with the seal-of-approval of the government, that will cross a final line with God.
“The harm that will befall this state, when the condign destructive wrath of God pours out on Kansans is the ultimate harm to the health, welfare and safety of the people.
“The description of the utter annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah and three nearby cities is stark, and directly tied to homosexuality.”
