Federal govt. to recognize Utah same-sex marriages

The federal government will recognize the same-sex marriages performed in Utah over the past month, despite the state announcing it would not view them as valid, pending appeal.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday the decision to count some 1,000 couples who wed in Utah between December 20, when a federal district court judge ruled the state's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional, and January 6, when the Supreme Court issued a stay halting new marriages.

“These families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status as the litigation unfolds,” Holder said. “In the days ahead, we will continue to coordinate across the federal government to ensure the timely provision of every federal benefit to which Utah couples -- and couples throughout the country -- are entitled, regardless of whether they are in same-sex or opposite-sex marriages. And we will continue to provide additional information as soon as it becomes available."

Last summer's United States v. Windsor Supreme Court decision, which said marriages between two people of the same sex are entitled to equal protection, opened the door to accelerating legalizing gay marriage on individual state levels.

The ruling in Utah, one of the country's most conservative states, came as a surprise to many, and the state attorney general's office moved immediately to try to halt marriages from going forward. But district and appeals courts denied the state's request for an emergency stay, which it claimed would prevent irreparable harm to gay couples whose marriages may be dissolved if Utah wins an appeal to overturn the district court's ruling against its ban.

On Wednesday, Utah said it would not recognize same-sex marriages pending appeal, but married gay couples may have legal precedent on their side, even if the ban is reinstated.

When in 2004 in California, San Francisco began issuing licenses to same-sex couples, the California Supreme Court voided thousands of marriages.

But that same court in 2009, while upholding Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, also said the 18,000 weddings that occurred since the court had legalized same-sex marriage the previous year would stand. The Ninth Circuit ruling upheld the overturn of the ban, partially on the grounds that the state could not withdraw the right to marry once it had been granted.