Updated Marriage Map

Today civil marriages for same-sex couples became legal in Florida.  If we add in Missouri and Kansas (see below), 37 states and the District of Columbia now offer civil marriage licenses to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples.  Basically the number of states where same-sex civil marriages are legal doubled in 2014 after a string of court rulings based on the Windsor case.  One article I read stated that 4 out of 5 Americans now live in a state where same-sex couples can legally wed.  Using 2010 Census data, I came to the figure of 73% of the population living in a state with marriage but those data are 5 years old now.

There are many complications to this story however:

*The US Supreme Court avoided taking up the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans in 2014.  After a split in appellate court rulings developed after a 2-1 ruling by the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati upheld the bans, the US Supreme Court has agreed to discuss whether to address the question of same-sex marriage bans and the US Constitution.  The Court will decide whether to take a case or pass again on the issue in January.

*Same-sex couples can only marry in a handful of jurisdictions in Missouri, but the state government recognizes these marriages.  Other jurisdictions continue to refuse licenses to couples pending more litigation.

*Neighboring Kansas is also a strange case.  A handful of jurisdictions there issue licenses but the state continues to refuse to recognize these marriages in spite of a ruling striking down marriage bans by the 10th Circuit.  

*Idaho's governor and attorney general are also appealing the striking down of that state's ban.

*Couples were briefly allowed to marry in Arkansas and Michigan.  After the 6th Circuit's ruling upholding Michigan's ban, Michigan's governor rushed to announce the marriages that had already occurred there using legally issued licenses at that time never happened and were void.  Even if that state's ban is upheld in appeal, the retroactive voiding of these marriages is likely to be more litigation.

*All this litigation by state officials seeking to uphold marriage bans is proving costly to states.  As state officials are losing more than 27 cases in 2014 over the unconstitutionality of these laws, they must by law pay the court costs of the citizens challenging these bans.  

I feel that it is likely the US Supreme Court will take up the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans in 2015 and issue a ruling.  The number of states with and without marriage now closely resembles the lineup of states before major court decisions on interracial marriages and school desegregation.  Most of the states have already adopted the new policies with the usual holdouts in the former Confederacy as well as the 6th Circuit states and the sparsely populated Dakotas and Nebraska remaining.  I should add that Puerto Rico and other US territories are also holdouts.  I predict that by January 2016 civil marriages will be open to both opposite-sex and same-sex couples alike with future generations wondering what all the fuss was about.  

UPDATED MAP: Kentucky!!!! and Same-Sex Marriage Lawsuits

The legal situation involving the push to legalize same-sex marriage in most of the states is rapidly changing. As of today new lawsuits in Wisconsin, Missouri, and Louisiana are expanding the states with legal challenges to same-sex marriage bans.  A previous lawsuit in Louisiana was dismissed in December over legal standing issues.

Also, a new lawsuit in Ohio does not seek the legalization of same-sex marriages at the state level there. Instead it seeks to have the names of both parents listed on birth certificates when an Ohio or out-of-state adopting couple are legally married elsewhere.  This Ohio case would expand on an earlier Federal judge's ruling that Ohio must list same-sex spouses legally married elsewhere on Ohio death certificates.  That case is being appealed.

And today a Federal judge in Texas is hearing a challenge to that state's same-sex marriage ban.  Nevada's Attorney General also announced she will not defend Nevada's same-sex marriage ban from a legal challenge there because of the ban's likely unconstitutionality.

UPDATE:  Even as I posted this map over lunch, a Federal judge in Louisville, KY, ruled that my home state of Kentucky must recognize same-sex couples legally married in other states.  This particular lawsuit did not address whether same-sex couples could marry in Kentucky.  So now Kentucky will either join Oregon in recognizing same-sex couples married elsewhere or join Utah and Oklahoma in appealing this ruling.

And Florida Joins the Same-sex Marriage Fight

Yesterday Equality Florida, that state's leading LGBT advocacy group, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Florida's ban on same-sex marriage and legalize same-sex marriage in America's 4th most populous state. This means:

• 21 states with active lawsuits directly seeking to legalize same-sex marriage
• 4 states with active lawsuits related to same-sex marriage
• 17 states + DC where legal same-sex marriages are on-going and uncontested
• 1 state trying to actively ban same-sex marriage by amending its state constitution (Indiana)

It is difficult to categorize some cases as seeking to legalize marriage or only related.  In the four states with active lawsuits related to same-sex marriage, two involve couples being able to file joint state tax returns.  In Kansas a lawsuit is seeking the right of same-sex couples married in other states to file jointly on their state tax returns.  Married couples throughout the US can now file jointly on their Federal taxes.  Next door in Missouri, the governor issued a regulation allowing married same-sex couples to file jointly on their state taxes.  An anti-gay group is now suing to stop joint state tax returns in Missouri.

Wisconsin has a domestic partnership law that gives same-sex couples 44 of the 200+ state benefits of marriage.  An anti-gay group sued claiming this law runs afoul of that state's ban on same-sex marriages.  The case is proceeding there over the partnership law and not marriage.

Similarly, a Montana lawsuit is seeking all the benefits of equal civil marriage for same-sex couples but not actual marriage.