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Nevada Marriage Ban Defendant Drops Appeal of Ninth Circuit Ruling

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“Finally, the confusion has ended and the Ninth Circuit’s decision is final and fully in effect. Nothing prevents marriages from beginning immediately for same-sex couples in Nevada.”
October 9, 2014

(Las Vegas, NV, October 9, 2014) – The Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, the organization that had been defending Nevada’s discriminatory marriage ban, today withdrew its motions before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to prevent the Ninth Circuit’s Tuesday ruling striking down the marriage ban from going into effect.

Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Tara Borelli issued the following statement:

“Finally, the confusion has ended and the Ninth Circuit’s decision is final and fully in effect. While the trial court will enter an order in the case finalizing relief, nothing prevents marriages from beginning immediately for same-sex couples in Nevada.”

Tuesday, in a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth struck down discriminatory marriage bans for same-sex couples in Nevada and Idaho. The decision comes just one month after Lambda Legal argued on behalf of eight Nevada couples and their children in the case Sevcik v. Sandoval.

Plans to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex Nevada couples on Wednesday were derailed, however, when the Supreme Court granted a stay requested by the State of Idaho which also covered Nevada. Although the Court later issued a clarifying order excluding Nevada, by that time the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, which had been defending the Nevada ban after Nevada’s governor and attorney general decided not to, had filed separate motions with the Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit seeking to prevent the decision from going into effect. Today, the Coalition withdrew those motions.

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Tom Warnke, Cell: 213-841-4503: Email: twarnke@lambdalegal.org

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