Colorado’s attorney general is urging the United States Supreme Court to take up the question of gay marriage in its next session.
Sixteen other state attorneys general, from both parties, joined Republican John Suthers in requesting the high court settle the issue. Their briefs don’t make any arguments about whether or not there is a constitutional right to gay marriage, just that the states need clarity from the justices.
The friend-of-the-court briefs were filed in a pair of lawsuits against Utah and Oklahoma’s gay marriage bans. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Denver, struck down both laws as unconstitutional earlier this year. The states are appealing.
Attorney General Suthers has steadfastly defended Colorado’s own gay marriage ban, although he says it seems inevitable that the law will eventually be overturned either in the courts or by voters.
