Roe v. Evans

Case #: 2:15-CV-00253-db
Date Filed:
Court Level: Federal District Court
Date of Appeal:

Description:

• A lawsuit was filed to require Utah State Office of Vital Records and Statistics to recognize a married same-sex couple as legal parents of their child.
• 27 April 2015, the defendants filed their Opposition to Preliminary Injunction.
• 30 April 2015, the plaintiffs filed their Reply in Support of Preliminary Injunction. A hearing on the motion for preliminary injunction is set for 15 July 2015 at 01:00 PM MT before Judge Dee Benson

Jonell Evans, et al. v. State of Utah

Case #: 2:14-cv-00055
Court Level: 10th Circuit Court of Appeals
Date Filed: 21 January 2014
Date of Appeal:

Description:

• 21 January 2014, the ACLU sued UT in state court (a) for ignoring the marriages of 2,600 people who were legally married as same-gender couples in UT, and (b) for harming their children.
• 4 February 2014, the ACLU of Utah filed a preliminary injunction motion with the federal court seeking an order that the State must immediately recognize marriages of all same-sex couples married in Utah and to continue to recognize them while the litigation in Evans v. Utah continues.
• 6 February 2014, the plaintiffs asked for an expedited hearing.
• 28 February 2014, UT argued that over 1,000 same-gender civil marriages performed for UT couples between 20 December 2013 and 6 January 2014 may get voided by the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in summer 2014, but the ACLU argued that those marriages would always remain fully legal no matter what the Appeals Court decides.
• 19 May 2014, the district court denied the motion for certification and granted the motion for a preliminary injunction requiring state recognition of the marriages. The district court temporarily stayed its order to allow the state to seek an emergency stay of his injunction pending appeal to the Tenth Circuit.
• 5 June 2014, the state appealed and moved to extend the stay of the district court’s preliminary injunction, the Tenth Circuit extended the temporary stay pending resolution of the stay motion.
• 11 July 2014, in a 2-1 split, the stay pending appeal was denied, but the temporary stay remains in effect until 21 July 2014 at 8am.
• 16 July 2014, Utah filed an emergency application to Justice Sotomayer for a stay of the federal injunction that requires the state to recognize 1300+ marriages performed in the state during Dec 2013 - Jan 2014.
• Sotomayer referred this to the full Supreme Court and on 18 July 2014 the Court issued an order granting the state a stay of the July 11 trial court order during the appeal to the 10th Circuit. In other words, beginning July 21, Utah does not have to recognize the same-sex marriages that already took place. (See first bullet.)
• 19 August 2014, the plaintiffs filed their opposition to the state's request for an additional 30 days to prepare their brief.