The Kansas Supreme Court announced today that it will begin deliberating at 8 a.m. Monday, Nov. 17, the original mandamus action filed with the court on the topic of same-sex marriage licenses.
The court will release its decision as soon as it is able to following deliberations.
On Oct. 10, Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed a petition for a writ of mandamus against a Johnson County District Court judge who issued an administrative order directing the court clerk in the 10th judicial district to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Schmidt’s petition asked the court to stop Johnson County District Court from issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
The matter was scheduled for hearing on Nov. 6. On Nov. 5, the Supreme Court canceled the Nov. 6 hearing and issued an order to show cause. The order continued an earlier stay of the Johnson County District Court judge’s administrative order and instructed the parties to show cause by 5 p.m. Nov. 14 why the stay should – or should not – remain in effect pending resolution of a separate case filed in federal district court that challenged Kansas’ laws prohibiting same-sex marriage.
The parties were also ordered to show cause why the Kansas Supreme Court’s consideration of the mandamus action should – or should not – be stayed pending final resolution of the federal case.
All documents related to this case are available on Kansas Judicial Branch website at www.kscourts.org under the listing State v. Moriarty in the What’s New section of the home page.
The Kansas ACLU today issued a statement that since the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday vacated the stay of the U.S. District Court injunction issued by a federal judge, that means the district courts in Kansas should stop enforcing Kansas’ prohibition on same-sex marriages.
The U.S. District Court found the Kansas marriage ban to be unconstitutional, as relates to the U.S. constitution.