[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Friday issued a stay [order, PDF] on the recognition of same-sex marriages performed in Utah pending final disposition of the appeal by the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit [official website]. Last week the appeals court denied Utah’s request to block legal recognition of the marriages, and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes [official website] appealed [press release] the case to the US Supreme Court. The state’s ban on same-sex marriages was temporarily lifted in December after the US District Court for the District of Utah [official website] struck it down [JURIST report. The Tenth Circuit upheld [JURIST report] that ruling in June.

Since the Supreme Court struck down [JURIST report] section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act [text] last year, many federal courts have declared state same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional. Last month a federal judge in Indiana ruled [JURIST report] the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Also in June the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] challenged Alabama’s same sex marriage ban, days after Wisconsin’s same-sex marriage ban was struck down [JURIST reports]. In May a federal judge struck down [JURIST report] Pennsylvania’s same sex marriage ban. That followed a similar ruling in Oregon, where a federal judge struck down [JURIST report] that state’s same sex marriage ban as well.