Anna Staver

Statesman Journal

The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order Wednesday denying a request to stop same-sex marriages in Oregon.

The one-sentence order denied a national advocacy group's request that asked Justice Anthony Kennedy to stay a U.S. District Court decision overturning the state's 2004 constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between one man and one woman.

"We are delighted that the Court has rejected NOM's attempt to derail marriage equality in Oregon," ACLU of Oregon executive director David Fidanque said in a statement. "We are confident that marriage equality in Oregon will help pave the way for marriage equality nationwide."

Judge Michael McShane ruled May 19 that the state's marriage law violated the federal rights of four gay couples who challenged the amendment. The National Organization for Marriage tried to intervene and defend the amendment in April after Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum declined to defend the state law in February.

McShane denied NOM's request for standing, and he denied their request to delay his decision on gay marriage in Oregon while the group appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

When McShane overturned the state ban as unconstitutional, the 9th Circuit rejected NOM's request to stop (stay) its implementation. The last step was to appeal that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which NOM did last week.

"I think [the decision] settles the state of affairs in Oregon as a legal matter — at least for a couple of months," said Carl Tobias, a law school professor at the University of Richmond.

Three of the 29 judges on the 9th Circuit still have to decide whether McShane erred when he denied the group the right to defend Oregon's law. Tobias thinks a decision could be handed down as early as late September.

"It's important to recognize that the Supreme Court has not decided the merits of the underlying issue," said John Eastman, Chairman of the National Organization for Marriage. "We will continue to press this case because we believe that the people of Oregon are entitled to a vigorous defense of marriage, and because it is in the public interest to preserve marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

Tobias thinks it's unlikely the 9th Circuit will overturn McShane's ruling in part because NOM "came in so late to the litigation. They made it more difficult for the judge to rule in their favor. I think the judge leaned over backwards to give them the benefit of the doubt."

Wednesday's Supreme Court order gave Oregon United for Marriage enough security in the legality of gay marriage rights in Oregon that the group announced it would not move forward with a November ballot initiative to rewrite the state's constitutional amendment on marriage.

The group had collected more than 160,000 signatures but was holding them in anticipation of the Wednesday's order.

"As of today, we don't need to go to the ballot this fall," Deputy Campaign Manager Amy Ruiz said. "If you came by the office, you would see us taking things off the walls."

astaver@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6610, or follow on Twitter @AnnaStaver