Judge won't lift stay in gay-marriage case

A federal judge in Little Rock on Wednesday denied a request to allow same-sex marriages while the issue is being appealed.

Couples involved in two lawsuits said in a motion requesting a stay be lifted that they are suffering harm by not being allowed to marry.

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker ruled in November that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was in violation of the U.S. Constitution, but issued a stay the same day of her ruling.

Baker said in the order that court rules won't allow her to vacate the stay, and that she would keep it in place because a court in a similar Missouri case refused to vacate a stay on same-sex marriage.

“As the State prepares to defend Amendment 83 to the Arkansas Constitution and Arkansas’s marriage statutes before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in May, I am pleased that Judge Baker has denied the request to lift the stay," Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said in a statement. "As the State argued in its response to the plaintiffs’ motion, unnecessary confusion, uncertainty and additional litigation would have resulted had Judge Baker lifted her stay while this case is pending before the Eighth Circuit. As the appeal moves forward, I will continue to vigorously defend the constitutionality of Arkansas’s marriage laws.”

Read Thursday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

Upcoming Events