[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Wednesday issued an lifted a stay [text, PDF] on issuing same-sex marriage licenses in Kansas. Justice Sonia Sotomayor [official profile] issued an order blocking same-sex marriage [JURIST report] in Kansas earlier this week, after Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt [official website] asked the court for an injunction. Kansas, in an attempt to protect state’s rights, made heavy use of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s [official website] recent decision that uphelds same-sex marriage bans [JURIST report] in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The application for the stay [text, PDF] contended that the federal judge’s finding that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional interferes with the state supreme court’s review and circumvents the state court’s power. The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit [official website] refused a state request for delay on Friday, in conflict with a previous Kansas Supreme Court [official website] decision, blocking the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples [JURIST report]. While a temporary delay was ordered by Sotomayor, the state’s application was ultimately denied by the court. No reasoning was provided by the justices, though Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas clarified that they would have chosen to keep the stay in place. Wednesday’s order makes Kansas the thirty-third state in the US in which same-sex marriages are now allowed.

Same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder] remains one of the most polarizing issues in the US today. On Wednesday a judge for the US District Court for the District of South Carolina ordered state officials to stop enforcing [JURIST report] South Carolina’s same-sex marriage ban. And last week the US District for the Southern District of West Virginia struck down [JURIST report] that state’s ban on same-sex marriage. In October US Attorney General Eric Holder announced [JURIST report] that the federal government would recognize same sex marriage in Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming.