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 Lawyers for gay and lesbian couples who want to get married urged
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts not to grant an emergency stay
application filed by a Republican elected official in Northern
Virginia.
Prince William County Clerk of the Court Michele McQuigg on Thursday
asked the Supreme Court to put on hold an appeals court ruling that
struck down the state's ban on gay marriage.
The lawyers for the gay and lesbian couples said McQuigg could not
show there is a high probability that the justices would reverse the
lower court, meaning there is no need for Roberts to prevent it from
immediately going into effect.
The appeals court's ruling "directly implicates the rights of tens
of thousands of gay and lesbian Virginians whose fundamental right
to marry has been denied by the Commonwealth of Virginia," wrote
lawyers for one of the two groups of gay and lesbian plaintiffs.
 Separately, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, said
in a court filing that he would support delaying gay marriage in the
state because he would prefer the Supreme Court to immediately
decide the issue once and for all. Herring backs gay marriage.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia,
invalidated the ban in a ruling issued on July 28. The court said on
Thursday that the ruling would go into effect on Aug. 21 if the
Supreme Court does not intervene.
Roberts, who has the responsibility of handling emergency
applications from the Richmond-based appeals court, can either act
on the application himself or refer the matter to the Supreme Court
as a whole.
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In a case concerning a similar ruling in Utah that struck down the
ban in that state, the Supreme Court ultimately blocked the ruling
pending further appeals.
The Supreme Court is expected to take at least one gay marriage case
in the coming term, which begins in October and ends in June.
Since the June 2013 ruling in the case United States v. Windsor
striking down a federal law defining marriage as between one man and
one woman, nearly 30 federal and state courts have ruled against
same-sex marriage bans at the state level.
Nineteen of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia allow
same-sex marriage.
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