Key West couple wants case sent to Supreme Court

 

SEAN KINNEY

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

A gay Key West couple hoping to overturn a statewide ban on same-sex marriage and tie the knot in the process have asked an appellate court to send their case on to the Florida Supreme Court.

Attorneys for Aaron Huntsman and William Lee Jones, bartenders in the Southernmost City and a couple for more than a decade, filed a motion with the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami on Monday, July 28, asking for the state’s highest court to take up the constitutional question.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a defendant in the civil action, has until Aug. 7 to enter a response.

Monroe County Chief Circuit Court Judge Luis Garcia found the statewide ban on gay marriage—adopted by a majority vote in a 2008 referendum—unconstitutional in an opinion issued July 17.

At that time, Garcia gave Monroe County Clerk of the Court Amy Heavilin, another defendant, until July 22 to make preparations and begin issuing marriage licenses.

Heavilin’s office refused to issue Huntsman and Jones a marriage license on April 1, prompting the lawsuit.

Bondi’s office immediately appealed that decision to the Third DCA.

Attorney General’s Office Communications Jenn Meale, also on July 17, forecasted the potential for escalation in a press memo: “With many similar cases pending throughout the entire country, finality on this constitutional issue must come from the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Assistant Attorney General Adam Tanenbaum is defending Bondi in the Monroe case and in a similar action brought by six same-sex couples in Miami-Dade County.

His defense is essentially that the applicable courts should respect the outcome of the 2008 referendum outlawing gay marriage, which passed with 61.92 percent of the vote.

In their request for passage to the Florida Supreme Court, plaintiff’s attorneys Bernadette Restivo and Elena Vigil-Farinas, citing applicable statute, wrote that the case, “requires immediate resolution by the supreme court…the issues pending are of great public importance or have a great effect on the proper administration of justice throughout the state.”

The attorneys continued: “There is a need to bring finality to this issue on a statewide basis so that clerks of the court throughout the state have uniform guidance as to whether they must issue marriage licenses on an equal basis to otherwise qualified same-sex couples.”

Bondi’s office had not filed a response on Tuesday, July 29, according to the Third DCA’s docket.

 

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