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 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.