Marriage equality update

Legal filings and rulings continue at a rapid pace across the country.

In Kansas, covered in other stories on this site, the State Supreme Court will hold a hearing on Monday, Nov. 17.

South Dakota

A federal judge on Friday allowed a lawsuit challenging South Dakota's ban on gay marriage to move forward, rejecting the state's request to dismiss the case. The state now has 10 days to reply to the plaintiff's motion for summary. After that, a timetable for when the judge could rule is unclear.

Mississippi

The attorney for a woman who wants the state of Mississippi to recognize her same-sex marriage in order to grant a divorce says his client's case is on a parallel track to the efforts in federal court to overturn the state's ban on gay marriage.

"There's no direct connection, but it is, of course, ultimately all part of the same issue," J. Wesley Hisaw told The Commercial Appeal in a discussion of the two cases.

Montana

A federal judge has vacated a hearing scheduled for next week in Great Falls to hear arguments in a lawsuit challenging Montana's ban on gay marriage.

The four gay couples who sued to overturn the ban along with Attorney General Tim Fox, who is defending the ban, agreed that U.S. District Judge Brian Morris has enough information to decide the case without the formal hearing that had been scheduled next Thursday.

South Carolina

A same-sex couple who wants to marry in South Carolina has until Monday to respond to a state request to put on hold a judge's order allowing gay marriages.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel this week threw out South Carolina's constitutional ban on same sex marriage, blocking any state official from enforcing it.

But the order does not take effect until Nov. 20. On Thursday, Attorney General Alan Wilson asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, to put it on hold.

The court has now given attorneys for Colleen Condon and Nichols Bleckley until 10 a.m. Monday to respond.

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The Gayly – November 15, 2014 @ 11:10am