Bondi seeks to put same-sex marriage appeals on hold
Attorney General Pam Bondi is asking an appeals court to put on hold two challenges to Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage until the U.S. Supreme Court can rule on similar cases from other states.
Bondi’s office late Thursdayfiled motions with the 3rd District Court of Appeal seeking to stay proceedings in appeals filed after Monroe and Miami-Dade County circuit judges found the same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. Those cases were the first times that courts have ruled against Florida’s ban, which was passed by voters in 2008.
In the motions, Bondi also opposed the possibility of the cases skipping quickly from the appeals court to the Florida Supreme Court. Plaintiffs in the cases had sought such a move, known as a “pass through.”
The attorney general pointed in the motions to recent requests by Utah and Oklahoma for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether, under the federal Constitution, states can define marriage as being between a man and a woman. It remains unclear when — or if — the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the marriage issue, which also is the subject of legal fights in numerous other states.
“Despite the vigorous policy and legal debates surrounding same-sex marriage, there is little disagreement about this: If the United States Supreme Court holds that states must sanction same-sex marriage, then Florida’s contrary laws must fall,” Bondi’s motions argued. “And if the United States Supreme Court holds that states may choose, then plaintiffs’ contrary legal claims must fall, and it would be up to Florida’s voters to effect any change. Either way, this appeal would be over, and it would end without consuming any further taxpayer resources and without burdening Florida’s judiciary.”
But Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said Bondi, who is running for re-election this fall, is seeking to “shelve the issue of the freedom to marry because it is increasingly inconvenient for electoral politics.” Bondi has drawn heavy criticism from Democrats and gay-rights supporters for defending the same-sex marriage ban.
“Florida couples and families shouldn’t be forced to wait to be treated equally — to secure health insurance for a spouse and children, to ensure greater economic security for their families,” Simon said in a prepared statement. “These families should not suffer just because our attorney general has chosen a legal strategy that has plagued her with awkward and embarrassing media coverage as she runs for re-election.”
Monroe County Circuit Judge Luis Garcia on July 17 issued the first decision striking down the same-sex marriage ban in a case filed by Aaron Huntsman and William Lee Jones, two Key West bartenders who sued Monroe County Clerk of Court Amy Heavilin for refusing to grant them a marriage license. Little more than a week later, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel also struck down the ban in a case filed on behalf of six same-sex couples.
The state appealed the rulings to the 3rd District Court of Appeal, and legal stays have prevented same-sex couple from being able to get marriage licenses while the cases continue. In the meantime, judges in Broward and Palm Beach counties also have ruled against the same-sex marriage ban in other cases.
Bondi’s latest motions deal more with the procedural issues of the appeals. In the documents, her office said the state will respect whatever the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately decides.
“The issue in this appeal is whether the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires states to sanction same-sex marriage,” the motions filed in the appeals court said. “That is unquestionably an important issue, and the plaintiffs, the state, and all citizens deserve a definitive answer. But neither this court nor the Florida Supreme Court can decide this federal issue with finality.”
It is Bondi that is the drain on the taxpayers…not those that fight for equality. She is an embarrassment to the state of Florida and she can take Rick Scott with her when they are sent packing this coming election.