Kansas Supreme Court puts same-sex marriage on hold News
Kansas Supreme Court puts same-sex marriage on hold

[JURIST] The Kansas Supreme Court [official website] on Friday temporarily halted [order, PDF] the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On the same day, the American Civil Liberties Union [official website] filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s same-sex marriage ban. The stay is set to last until November 6, when oral arguments will be heard on the issue. The court outlined the potential issue as “whether Kansas’ state constitutional, statutory, or common law bans on same-sex marriage are permissible under the United States Constitution.” The November 6 proceeding will also address whether a local judge was correct when he ordered clerks to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses. The court said it will allow applications for same-sex marriage licenses to continue.

Same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder] continues to be one of the most polarizing issues in the US today. Last Monday the US Supreme Court denied seven pending appeals [JURIST report], rejecting calls for a nationwide ruling on same-sex marriage. Last month the Fifteenth Judicial District Court of Louisiana issued a ruling [JURIST report] holding the state’s ban on the recognition of same-sex marriages performed outside of the state unconstitutional. Also last month a judge for Wisconsin’s Dane County Circuit Court ruled [JURIST report] that the marriage of a lesbian couple who wed in Iowa was constitutionally valid and that such marriages must be recognized under state adoption laws, approving the couple’s adoption of their two children. In August a judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida ruled [JURIST report] that Florida’s ban on same-sax marriage is unconstitutional and the state must recognize same-sex couples that were lawfully married in other states.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.