Same-sex marriage appeals arrive at SCOTUS (‘Windsor Sequels’)

EqualThe nation’s longest-running federal court challenge to a state ban on same-sex marriage — now in its tenth year — reached the Supreme Court on Wednesday.  Lyle Denniston reports at SCOTUSblog.com, Oklahoma clerk appeals on same-sex marriage:

A county clerk in Oklahoma filed a petition seeking to defend that state’s ban, one day after a similar appeal was filed by Utah officials.  The Oklahoma case (Smith v. Bishop) has been docketed as 14-136. Other cases are due at the Court soon.

And in Same-sex marriage issue reaches the Court early:

Virginia officials will be submitting their own petition to the Supreme Court on Friday, Attorney General Mark R. Herring said in a filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Utah state officials, filing six weeks ahead of their deadline, asked the Court to uphold their state’s ban.   This was the first of several cases on that question likely to reach the Justices in the coming weeks and months.

The Utah case, titled Herbert v. Kitchen (docket 14-124) raised a single constitutional question: “Whether the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a state from defining or recognizing marriage only as the legal union between a man and a woman.”

The Tenth Circuit decisions against Utah and Oklahoma are on hold during the appeal to the Supreme Court. Virginia urged the Fourth Circuit to put its ruling on hold while the case moves to the Supreme Court.