This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
State attorneys plan to review a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upolding gay marriage bans in four states to determine whether the ruling has implcations for Utah's own same-sex marriage laws, an attorney general's office spokeswoman said Thursday.
"It's a complicated legal analysis, so it's not that easy to say," Missy Larsen said.
Gay marriage became legal in Utah in December 2013, when a federal district judge overturned the state's voter-approved ban on same-sex unions, ruling it unconstitutional. Utah lost an appeal of the decision to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and sought a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.
That petition, which like the 6th Circuit case was based on a states' rights argument, was rejected Oct. 6, when the high court declined to hear any same-sex marriage-related cases. With that decision, same-sex marriage became legal in Utah.
The deadline to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision on Utah's case was Friday. The state did not ask for a reconsideration, Larsen said.
More than half of Utahns oppose same-sex unions, as does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the state's dominant religion.
Jennifer Dobner