FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – December 15, 2014
CONTACT: ACLU of Florida Media Office, media@aclufl.org, (786) 363-2737
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a motion at the United States Supreme Court asking for an emergency stay to be placed on implementation of the federal court’s decision striking down Florida’s ban on marriages for same-sex couples.
On November 5th, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued an order stating that the stay would be lifted at the end of the day on January 5th. The ruling striking down the marriage ban was the result of two cases -- one brought by the ACLU of Florida on behalf of 8 couples, a Fort Myers widow and SAVE, South Florida’s largest LGBT rights organization; the other by Jacksonville attorneys William Sheppard and Sam Jacobson on behalf of two couples.
The state had previously filed a motion asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to extend the stay, but that motion was denied on December 3.
Responding to today’s filing, ACLU of Florida LGBT rights attorney Daniel Tilley stated:
“It is unsurprising, given how hard Governor Scott, his appointees, and Attorney General Bondi have fought to keep loving and committed couples from getting married and having their marriages recognized in Florida, that they would keep up this dead-end fight. But with just weeks until the ruling is scheduled to go into effect, it is disappointing.
“Florida families have waited long enough for the end of a ban that a federal court has declared unconstitutional. Since October, the Supreme Court has refused all requests to stay rulings striking down the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage in other states. We are hopeful they will do the same here so that loving couples and their children can get the protections for which they have waited so long.”
Attorneys from the ACLU, the ACLU of Florida and Stephen F. Rosenthal of Podhurst Orseck, P.A. represent eight same-sex couples, a widow from Ft. Myers, and SAVE, South Florida’s largest LGBT rights organization, in a federal lawsuit challenging Florida’s marriage ban.
More information on the ACLU’s case, including bios of the couples, is available at: www.aclufl.org/marriageequality
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