(Salt Lake City, UT, August 5, 2014)—Today, the Utah state officials defending the state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples filed a petition with the Supreme Court of the United States asking the Court to review a June 2014 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit striking down the Utah ban.
The plaintiff same-sex couples in the case—Kitchen v. Herbert—are represented by Peggy Tomsic of the Salt Lake City law firm of Magleby & Greenwood, P.C., and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
Said Tomsic: “We respect the State’s right to seek review of its own law in the highest Court in the land, but we also respectfully, and vehemently, disagree with the notion that States can deny one of the most foundational rights to the millions of same-sex couples living across this great land. We look forward to reviewing the Petition filed by Utah’s excellent lawyers, and to responding to it in due course.”
Added NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter: “We respectfully disagree with the State of Utah’s lawyers. Utah’s same-sex couples and their children are continually harmed by the enforcement of measures that deny them equal dignity, security and protection. We will carefully review the State’s petition to determine the response that will best advance our goal of winning for all Utahns the freedom to marry the person they love, and to have their marriages treated the same as other couples’ marriages.”
Read the petition and learn more about the case.