[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of North Dakota [official website] on Tuesday put on hold a case challenging North Dakota’s same-sex marriage ban [text, PDF], pending the US Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on the issue. The lawsuit [complaint], initially filed in June by seven same-sex couples, challenges [JURIST report] North Dakota’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage as violating the equal protection, due process and right-to-travel clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment [text] to the US Constitution. North Dakota’s same-sex marriage ban is the last currently being challenged in US federal court.

Same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] continues to be one of the most important topics in the US today. The Supreme Court [official website] agreed earlier this month to rule [JURIST report] on same-sex marriage, granting certiorari [order list, PDF] in four cases. The court consolidated appeals from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee after the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld bans [JURIST report] in those states. The court granted one hour and 90 minutes for oral arguments, which will likely be held in April with a decision is expected to be announced in June. The four consolidated cases are Obergefell v. Hodges, Tanco v. Haslam, DeBoer v. Snyder and Bourke v. Beshear [dockets].