[JURIST] The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) [advocacy website] on Tuesday filed [application, PDF] an application to block same-sex marriages in Oregon [background materials] while the group appeals a decision overturning the state’s ban. The group, which opposes same-sex marriage, submitted the filing to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who handles such requests from the region that includes Oregon. The stay would temporarily halt same-sex marriages in the state pending the group’s appeal. NOM chairman John Eastman said [press release]:

We are asking Justice Kennedy and the U.S. Supreme Court to take the step of staying the decision of Judge McShane so that NOM can pursue its request to intervene in the case in order to mount a defense of the people’s vote for marriage. … This case is an ugly spectacle of the state refusing to defend the sovereign act of its voters to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman and instead working jointly with the plaintiffs to redefine marriage.

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Oregon originally denied [JURIST report] NOM’s petition to intervene in the case, questioning why the would-be intervenors failed to timely file the petition or why they failed to file an amicus curiae brief.

Same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder] is one of the most controversial topics facing the legal community in America today. Last Thursday six couples filed a federal lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging South Dakota’s ban on same-sex marriage. That same day the ACLU of Montana filed a complaint [JURIST report] reviving a challenge to the state’s same-sex marriage ban that was dismissed in December 2012. Two weeks ago a judge for Arkansas’ Pulaski County Circuit Court ruled [JURIST report] that the state ban on court clerks issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples is unconstitutional. Also earlier in May five same-sex couples challenged [JURIST report] Alaska’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. North Dakota is now the only remaining state [TIME report] whose same-sex marriage bans has not been challenged in court.