Idaho Gov, AG Fighting to Re-ban Marriage Equality

Butch Otter (pictured) and Lawrence Wasden, Idaho's Republican governor and attorney general, respectively, filed separate petitions on Friday seeking a review of their state's marriage equality with the Supreme Court.

The pair are pulling out all the stops to reverse marriage equality in Idaho, which has been in effect since mid-October, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld another ruling doing away with the state's 2006 voter-enshrined ban, which covered all unions by gay couples. Otter and Wasden are going with the often-debunked argument that opposite-sex couples make better parents than same-sex couples, seeing that as rationale for keeping same-sex marriage illegal.

"It is important that at least one of the cases [the Supreme] court considers on the merits be a case in which the traditional definition of marriage has been defended with the most robust defense available," Otter attorney Gene Schaerr wrote in the filing, according to the AP. "This is that case."

Otter and Wasden were likely bolstered by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding marriage equality bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee in a November ruling. The governor and AG, which have spent $400,000 of taxpayer money on their marriage fight, are hoping the split decisions by seperate federal appeals courts will force the Supreme Court's hand.

"This case presents the Court with the opportunity to resolve a divisive split on a question of nationwide importance: Whether the United States Constitution now prohibits states from maintaining the traditional definition of civil marriage, i.e., between one man and one woman," Wasden said in the petition.

The Supreme Court could decide as early as next week whether they will take up the issue of same-sex marriage.