AG Pam Bondi wants to put the brakes on gay marriage appeals
Attorney General Pam Bondi is asking an appeals court to put on hold two challenges to Florida's ban on same-sex marriage until the U.S. Supreme Court can rule on similar cases from other states.
Bondi's office late Thursday filed motions with the 3rd District Court of Appeal seeking to stay proceedings in appeals filed after Monroe and Miami-Dade County circuit judges found the same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. Those cases were the first times that courts have ruled against Florida's ban, which was passed by voters in 2008.
In the motions, Bondi also opposed the possibility of the cases skipping quickly from the appeals court to the Florida Supreme Court. Plaintiffs in the cases had sought such a move, known as a "pass through."
The attorney general pointed in the motions to recent requests by Utah and Oklahoma for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether, under the federal Constitution, states can define marriage as being between a man and a woman. It remains unclear when — or if — the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the marriage issue, which also is the subject of legal fights in numerous other states.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-pam-bondi-gay-marriage-appeal-delay-20140808,0,2425639.story
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