Utah won’t appeal ruling in same-sex parents case

Associated Press | KSL Utah | July 21, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah will not appeal a judge’s orderrequiring the state list the names of a lesbian couple on a birth certificate as the mothers of their new baby.

Utah Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman Missy Larsen said Monday that the state wouldn’t contest the ruling in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson said last week the case wasn’t hard to decide. Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union said the decision was the first of its kind since gay marriage was legalized.

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Utah Claims Sovereign Right To Define Marriage In Defending Gay Marriage Ban

Crowd in support of Gay Marriage (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Top Magazine | August 16, 2013

In a brief filed in a federal case challenging Utah’s ban on gay marriage, the state argued that it has a sovereign right to define and regulate marriage.

Three gay couples sued the state in federal court after being denied a marriage license.  They are asking the judge in the case to declare invalid Amendment 3, the state’s 2004 constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.

In its response to the complaint filed this week, the Utah Attorney General’s Office argued that marriage is not a constitutionally protected right or liberty for gay couples.

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