The state of Utah may have put future gay marriages on hold as it successfully got the Supreme Court to halt marriages while it appeals another judge’s decision, but the Obama administration has announced that federal benefits will be given to those who got married during the time when it was legal there:
This puts the administration at odds with the state, which has said that it won’t recognize marriages already performed as it seeks the appeal.
The Obama administration will grant federal benefits to the roughly 1,000 gay couples in Utah who got married during the brief window recently when it was legal.
“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,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a video message which was shared with TPM. “These families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status as the litigation unfolds.”
On Dec. 20, a district court judge legalized same-sex marriage in the state. The state of Utah appealed the decision, and on Jan. 6, the Supreme Court halted the judge’s ruling while the courts weighed the issue on the merits.
This adds yet another twist to a messy and contentious situation, as the New York Times notes:
The Justice Department’s intervention added a further sense of whiplash to the highly charged dispute, which began on Dec. 20 when a Federal District Court judge, Robert J. Shelby, ruled that Utah’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman violated the federal Constitution.
As same-sex couples flooded county clerk’s offices in Utah, the state government asked a higher court to block the order while it appealed the ruling, but a federal appeals court declined to do so, and the marriages continued. On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a stay, bringing a halt to further same-sex marriages while the litigation continues. That decision effectively left those same-sex couples in legal limbo.
Then, on Wednesday, the office of the governor of Utah, Gary R. Herbert, said that the state would not recognize as lawful the same-sex marriages already licensed while it pressed forward with its appeal of the ruling.
Consider this just part and parcel of America’s non-ceasing culture wars. But, clearly, on this issue it is a generational issue — and time is not on the state of Utah’s side.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.