The United States government has communicated this Friday that it will recognize over 1,000 same sex marriages carried out in the state of Utah, despite de intervention of the Supreme Court, that decided to keep them suspended until a legal battle in between a Federal District Court judge and the state.
According the New York Times, the Secretary of Justice and Attorney General, Eric Holder, has guaranteed that the government will keep federal benefits for same sex couples that had already been married before the Supreme Court's decision.
"I am confirming today that, for purposes of federal law, these marriages will be recognized as lawful and considered eligible for all relevant federal benefits on the same terms as other same-sex marriages," said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on a video posted on the Justice department website. "These families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status as the litigation unfolds."
On December 20th, Federal judge Robert Shelby declared illegal the Utah law that prevented same sex marriages, a decision that was appealed by state authorities.
In between December 20th and January 6th, day that the Supreme Court decided to block gay marriage until the legal battle was resolved, over 1,000 couples got married.
A short time after Shelby's verdict, Utah's Attorney General presented an appeal to the 10th Circuit Federal Appeals Court, in Denver, Colorado. On December 31st, the state submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court judge, Sonia Sotomayor, responsible for emergency requests for the region, in which it asked for a suspension of the judicial decision while the process as still ongoing.
In the appeal, the state of Utah declared that every single one of the marriages that took place from December 20th where "Each one is an affront not only to the interests of the state and its citizens in being able to define marriage through ordinary democratic channels," according to an article published by the National Catholic Register on their website.
State authorities want to continue applying the law, considered illegal by Shelby, and was approved by voters in a plebiscite in 2004, and that defined marriage as a union only possible between a man and a woman.
They sustain that the Federal judge's decision also puts in risk "this court's unique role as final arbiter of the profoundly important constitutional question" of whether gay marriage is legal or not.The Appeals Court in Denver will begin revising of the case on January 27th.
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