Michael Gans, clerk for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, asked attorneys Tuesday to weigh in on how the court should dispose of a pending appeal concerning Arkansas' same-sex marriage bans, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling Friday outlawing such bans across the country.
"As you know, this appeal was held in abeyance pending the issuance of the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell," Gans wrote in a letter to Assistant Attorney General Colin Jorgensen, whose office defended the bans, and plaintiffs' attorneys Jack Wagoner and Angela Mann.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker found the bans unconstitutional Nov. 25.
"Now that the Obergefell opinion has issued," Gans wrote, referring to the Supreme Court opinion, "the court has directed me to contact you and solicit your views regarding further proceedings in the appeal."
In the note that was dated and filed Tuesday, Gans asked attorneys to reply by July 8, "expressing your views concerning the steps the court should take to dispose of this appeal."
Baker stayed her ruling on the day she issued it, pending an appeal. After the state appealed the ruling, a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit scheduled oral arguments for May 12 in the Arkansas case, Jernigan v. Crane, in conjunction with arguments on three similar cases from Missouri, South Dakota and Nebraska. However, the court canceled the arguments in late April, citing the Supreme Court's intention to hear arguments in May in a same-sex marriage case from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Cincinnati, and to issue a ruling by late June.
Wagoner and John DiPippa, a constitutional law expert at the W.H. Bowen School of Law in Little Rock, said Friday that the Supreme Court opinion cleared the way for same-sex couples to marry in all states, regardless of when or if Baker or the Arkansas Supreme Court lifted stays on rulings finding the bans unconstitutional.
The Arkansas Supreme Court, which never decided the appeal in the state case, dismissed that case Friday, saying it was moot in light of the Supreme Court ruling. Jurisdiction of Baker's case technically remains in the 8th Circuit.
Metro on 07/01/2015