The Fall of Colorado’s Same Sex Marriage Ban
By Kelly Cooper
Starting on Monday, marriage licenses were issued in Colorado to couples regardless of sexual orientation.
This change came because the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear cases from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. What do these five states have in common? Each of them had banned same sex marriage and had those bans declared unconstitutional by a U.S. Court of Appeals.
In refusing to hear these cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld three U.S. Courts of Appeal’s decisions declaring the same sex marriage bans unconstitutional and making same sex marriages legal in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear these cases has reached far beyond the borders of those five states. This is because every state in the U.S. is subject to the decisions made by one U.S. Court of Appeals. For example, Colorado is situated in the 10th Circuit and the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declared Utah’s ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional. Since Utah and Colorado are both bound by 10th Circuit’s decisions, it is likely that Colorado’s same sex marriage ban would also be declared unconstitutional by the 10th Circuit. As a result, various county clerks began issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples in Colorado.
Current status: There are 19 states that permit same sex marriages plus the District of Columbia. Due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to hear these cases, five more states’ bans on same sex marriage will fall bringing the total number of states permitting same sex marriage to 24. Due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, an additional six states’ same sex marriage bans are effectively overruled, including Colorado’s. The other five states are Wyoming, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia. This will bring the total number of states allowing same sex marriage to 30.
We can expect more developments and changes in this area in the near term, so stay tuned.