The request goes to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who has called for responses to the state’s request by noon Friday.
Jax Collins, left, and Heather Collins get married at the Salt Lake County Government Building in Salt Lake City, Utah, December 23, 2013.
Jim Urquhart / Reuters
WASHINGTON — The Utah Attorney General's Office has asked the Supreme Court to step in and stop same-sex couples from marrying while it appeals a trial court decision striking down its amendment banning such marriages.
The filing, an application to stay judgment pending appeal, was filed with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who can decide the motion on her own or refer it to the entire court to decide.
The lawyers for Utah first argue that the Supreme Court would be likely to accept the case, Kitchen v. Herbert, on appeal should it — currently on appeal before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals — later be appealed to them.
Then, the lawyers argue that they are likely to succeed on appeal and that the Dec. 20 ruling for U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby will be overturned.
"Justice Sotomayor has called for a response due by noon E.S.T. on Friday, January 3, 2014," the Supreme Court's public information office told BuzzFeed Tuesday afternoon, earlier reported by Appellate Daily's Michelle Olsen and likely meaning that Sotomayor will be able to keep her plans to lead the Times Square ball drop at midnight Tuesday to ring in 2014.
Writing that the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor was "based in significant part on federalism concerns," they conclude, "[T]he district court not only refused to accommodate Utah's definition [of marriage] for purposes of federal law, it altogether abrogated the decisions of the State and its citizens, acting through every available democratic channel, to define marriage in the traditional way. The district court's decision was therefore a far greater 'federal intrusion on state power' than the intrusion invalidated in Windsor."
Utah does not believe this case is like the Supreme Court case that ended state bans on interracial marriage:
The final reason that Utah argues that the case will be overturned on appeal is "the large and growing body of social science research contradicting the central premise of the district court's due process and equal protection holdings: i.e., its conclusion that there is no 'rational reason'—much less any compelling reason—for restricting marriage to same-sex couples."