WASHINGTON — The Tulsa County court clerk asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to review a federal appeals court decision that struck down Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down Oklahoma’s ban last month, removed the right of citizens to debate the issue of same-sex marriage, and the U.S. Supreme Court should “return to the People this critical issue of marriage policy,” court clerk Sally Howe Smith says in the petition.
The Oklahoma same-sex marriage ban was the second this week to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the state of Utah asked the high court justices to review the decision by the same appeals court that struck down Oklahoma’s ban.The same three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit court heard the Oklahoma and Utah cases, which were considered on a parallel track but decided separately. In both, the court ruled 2-1 that the state bans violated 14th Amendment guarantees to due process and equal protection under the law.
