Utah asks the U.S. Supreme Court to Block Same-Sex Marriage

Utah on Tuesday took its fight against same-sex marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking Justice Sonia Sotomayor to suspend a lower court ruling that allowed same-sex weddings to go ahead in the heavily Mormon state. 

Sotomayor, who handles emergency legal applications from Utah and surrounding states, asked the plaintiffs in the case, three gay and lesbian couples, to respond to the application by 12 p.m. EST on Friday.

Utah is seeking to block a judge's decision to strike down the state's 2004 ban on same-sex marriage on grounds it violates the rights of same-sex couples to equal treatment under the law. 

Hundreds of gay couples in Utah have received marriage licenses since the December 20 ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby.

Utah's court filing says that the gay and lesbian marriages that have been performed in the state are "an affront ... to the interests of the state and its citizens in being able to define marriage through ordinary democratic channels." 

Sotomayor can reject the application outright or refer the case to the entire court. If she rejects the application, the state could ask another of the justices to act. There is no set time by which Sotomayor is required to act.

Utah became the 18th state to extend marriage rights to gays and lesbians when Shelby sided with three same-sex couples in their lawsuit challenging a voter-passed amendment to the Utah state constitution that defined marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.

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