Today Lambda Legal, the ACLU and private firm Gerhardstein & Branch petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States for a writ of certiorari, the formal request that the Court review its cases challenging Ohio’s constitutional ban on marriage equality.


Earlier this month the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned lower court rulings that struck down state marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.  This was the first time a federal appeals court ruled against marriage equality after four other federal appeals courts upheld district court rulings that the bans are unconstitutional. 


From Lambda Legal’s blog:


The joint filing covers two lawsuits filed by Gerhardstein & Branch: Henry v. Hodges, joined by Lambda Legal, seeking to compel the State of Ohio to recognize the legal marriages of same-sex couples and issue accurate birth certificates, and Obergefell v. Hodges, joined by the ACLU, seeking to order the State to issue accurate death certificates to married same-sex couples.


Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee cases have also indicated they will be petitioning for the Supreme Court to hear their cases on appeal as well.


By filing for cert so quickly, there’s a chance the Supreme Court could take up the cases this term, although there is no set protocol as to when or if the justices decide to hear a case.

>people are happy about the moral decline of our nation