[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit [official website] on Friday ordered a stay [text] on the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana‘s [official website]ruling [JURIST report] striking down Indiana’s ban on gay marriage, pending an appeal of the case. In the two days between the ruling and the stay, hundreds of same sex couples had already married, and their marriages will remain valid. The lawsuit challenges parts of Indiana Code Section 31-11-1-1 [text], which bans all same-sex marriages and bans recognition of same-sex marriages performed out-of-state.

In the opinion striking down the Indiana marriage ban, Chief Judge Richard Young commented on the phenomenon throughout the federal courts on the issue of same-sex marriage. 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. Earlier this month the ACLU 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.