The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will NOT Delay Same Sex Marriages in Florida
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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The ruling was in the case Brenner v. Armstrong and Gimrsley and Albu v. Scott, two federal cases seeking the freedom to marry and respect for marriages legally performed in other states, in Florida. Grimsley and Albu v. Scott was originally filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of SAVE, an LGBT organization in Miami and eight same-sex couples who were married in other states seeking respect in Florida. The case is on a parallel track as Brenner v. Scott, filed by private lawyers on behalf of two same-sex couples from northern Florida. On August 21, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle ruled in favor of the freedom to marry and respect for marriages legally performed between same-sex couples in other states in the cases.

The 11th Circuit's decision underscores that same-sex couples should not have to wait to marry and that there is no good reason to delay justice.  

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"This is a clear victory for us because it finds the harm is being done to the people, not the state," said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, which is representing same-sex couples from throughout Florida and gay-rights group SAVE, who sued to have out-of-state same-sex marriages recognized in the Sunshine State. U.S. Judge Robert L. Hinkle of Tallahassee ruled Aug. 21 that Florida's gay marriage ban, passed by voters in 2008, is unconstitutional. He stayed his decision while Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi appealed his decision, but said the stay would expire on Jan. 5. Bondi appealed Hinkle's decision to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which still hasn't set a date for the case. Instead, a three-judge panel — Judges Frank M. Hull, Charles R. Wilson and Adalberto Jordan — on Wednesday denied Bondi's request to keep the stay in place. "We are reviewing the ruling," Bondi spokeswoman Jennifer Meale wrote Wednesday in an email to the Miami Herald. "Today, in denying the State's request to further delay the ruling, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the State's argument that allowing same-sex couples to marry and have their marriages recognized will cause harm to the State and refused to make these families wait any longer. The Court effectively ruled that the State does not have a likelihood of succeeding in its appeal," ACLU LGBT rights attorney Daniel Tilley said.

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