Florida's Same-Sex Marriage Battle Not Over Yet

Florida same-sex couples looking for a green light to legally marry in the Sunshine State might find themselves waiting a bit longer as legal wrangling continues.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday filed a federal appeal related to U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle’s ruling that the state’s 2008 voter-backed ban violates the equal protection and due processes clauses of the U.S. Constitution, according to Reuters.

While Bondi filed the federal appeal, she did not appeal a decision from a Broward judge that also found the ban unconstitutional. The deadline for appealing that ruling passed Wednesday, the Miami Herald reported.

Meanwhile, the Florida Supreme Court announced Friday it would not issue an opinion on whether the state is bound to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages. The state’s highest court declined to take on the case of two women who were denied a divorce by a judge in Hillsborough County.

That judge told Mariama Shaw and Keiba Shaw the state didn’t recognize their 2010 Massachusetts marriage as valid, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The state’s Second District Court of Appeal had asked the Florida Supreme Court to make a ruling.

The Florida Supreme Court cited Second District appellate Judge Chris Altenbernd’s dissenting opinion in its reasons for declining the case. While his Second District colleagues wanted the case moved higher, Altenbernd said it did not have a broad enough impact since it only focused on whether or not Florida had to recognize other states’ same-sex marriages. The appeal did not hinge on the constitutionality of Florida’s ban.

“Although the issue on appeal is important to this couple, I am not convinced that the order on appeal presents an issue that is ripe to be treated as one with great public importance,” Altenbernd wrote in his dissent.

While the legal wrangling continues, Broward County is making a determination on whether or not it can begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. County Clerk Howard Forman hopes to have a determination made by early next week, the Miami Herald reported.

“I’m researching it as quickly as I can,” Forman told the Herald.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to take up the issue of same-sex marriage when its term starts in October.

See Also:

• Federal Judge: Florida’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconstitutional
• State Ban on Gay Marriage Unconstitutional, 3rd Judge Says
• U.S. Rep. Jolly Announces Support of Gay Marriage
• Same-Sex Marriage: Supreme Court or Bust?
• Song Calls Out Florida Attorney General on Gay Marriage
• Same-Sex Marriage Now Legal in Florida Keys