[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona [official website] on Friday ordered [order] Arizona to issue a death certificate listing the deceased man as married and his same-sex partner as his surviving spouse. District Judge John Sedwick cited rulings in the past year overturning state bans on same-sex marriage in support of his ruling. Plaintiff Fred McQuire asked the court for a temporary restraining order, which would require defendants to recognize the legitimacy of his California marriage to his recently deceased partner George Martinez by requiring the state to prepare and issue a death certificate showing that Martinez was married to McQuire when he died. The court found that McQuire was able to meet the requirements necessary to obtain injunctive relief: he is likely to succeed on the merits; he is likely to suffer irreparable harm without the relief sought; a balancing of the equities tips toward him; and the public interest favors issuance of an injunction.

The debate over same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder] is one of the most polarizing issues currently facing the American legal community. Since the US Supreme Court [official website] struck down [JURIST report] section three of the Defense of Marriage Act [text] last year, numerous state and federal courts have ruled on state same-sex marriage bans. Earlier this month the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana [official website] became the first federal court to uphold a state same-sex marriage ban [JURIST report] since the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor. Last week Indiana and Wisconsin each asked [JURIST report] the US Supreme Court to determine if same-sex marriage should be legal in all 50 states. In August the Florida Second District Court of Appeals [official website] issued an opinion calling for a ruling on the constitutionality of the state’s same-sex marriage ban [JURIST report] by the Florida Supreme Court [official website]. The same day the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] dismissed a challenge [JURIST report] by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) [advocacy website] to reinstate Oregon’s same-sex marriage ban, which was ruled unconstitutional [JURIST report] by a federal district court in May. In January four same-sex couples filed a class action lawsuit [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the District of Arizona seeking to overturn the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Currently 19 US states and DC allow same-sex marriage, and more than 70 lawsuits relating to same-sex marriage [Freedom to Marry factsheets] are pending in 32 states.