Supreme Court: Same-Sex Couples Can Marry in Kansas

Same-sex couples in Kansas will be able to begin marrying as soon as today, the Supreme Court ordered Wednesday.

The state requested a stay of a lower court's order to strike down its ban on same-sex marriage earlier this week. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who oversees the 10th Circuit, issued a temporary stay, but on Wednesday, seven of the nine justices affirmed that the lower court's ruling would remain intact (justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented, BuzzFeed reports).

The ruling, issued earlier this month from U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree, found that the Kansas constitution's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage violated the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the U.S. Constitution. Crabtree placed a one-week stay on his own ruling, ostensibly to give the state time to appeal.

As of Wednesday morning, Kansas was the only state in the 10th Circuit without marriage equality. After the Supreme Court last month refused to consider cases out of Oklahoma and Utah (also within the 10th Circuit), pro-equality decisions from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals became legally binding in all the states in the circuit. In the weeks after that decision, Colorado, followed by Wyoming, embraced marriage equality, while same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in New Mexico since December.