Friday, June 28, 2013

Supreme Court Dismisses Arizona, Nevada Same-Sex Marriage Cases


After announcing its decision in two landmark same-sex marriage cases on Wednesday, the Supreme Court declined to take up two more cases relating to same-sex marriage, one involving the state of Arizona and the other involving Nevada.

Arizona's case, Brewer v. Diaz, involved state Gov. Jan Brewer asking the justices to reconsider an appeals ruling which struck down a state law denying health benefits to domestic partners of state employees; the justices' decision to decline hearing the case means the appeals ruling will stand.

Gov. Brewer sought a Supreme Court ruling for the appeals decision because she argued that the 2009 law was not intended to discriminate against same-sex couples but rather was implemented as a money-saving strategy for the state.

The Nevada case, Sevcik v. Sandoval, sought to have the justices recognize definitively that individual states have the right to legally limit marriage to heterosexual couples; this case will now be considered in a federal appeals court in San Francisco. Read more

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