By L.A. Williams, Correspondent
Christian Action League
January 7, 2014
Less than three weeks after homosexual couples began dashing down the aisle in Utah, the Supreme Court has put a halt on same-sex marriage there while a federal appeals court takes a closer look at the issue.
“This intervention by the High Court is welcome news to say the least,” said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina. “We certainly hope the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules in favor of Utah’s right to keep marriage between a man and a woman.”
The Mormon-dominated state added a marriage protection amendment to its constitution in 2004. But on Dec. 20, U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby ruled that the law violated homosexuals’ constitutional rights. Before the state could get a stay, more than 900 same-sex couples had wed.
The state has until Jan. 27 to file its first brief in the appeal, a case that Matt Barber, vice president of Liberty Counsel Action, said is not only crucial to reining in activist judges, but impossible to predict.
“It really is up for grabs as to how the 10th Circuit will rule,” he told One News Now. “They have had some bad rulings with regard to transgender issues and with regard to same-sex matters and so-called ‘sexual orientation’ law, and they’ve had some good rulings.”
Barber said it’s important to remember that even though the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Amendment last year, the part that involves states’ rights to define marriage wasn’t struck down.
“Hopefully the 10th Circuit will apply the law and apply the United States Constitution and send a signal to other states and other liberal, activist judges across the country that the law of the land remains in place that states get to define what is or is not marriage in those respective states,” he said.
Utah had briefly become the 18th state to allow same-sex marriage.
All eyes are on the case as it could set a precedent for suits like the one facing North Carolina’s Marriage Protection Amendment, passed by the voters in 2012.