State Ends Appeal In Same-Sex Marriage Case
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MIAMI (CBSMiami/NSF) -- Florida dismissed an appeal in a legal battle over same-sex marriage, three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples have the right to marry.
Attorney General Pam Bondi's office filed a two-paragraph motion for dismissal in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to an online docket.
The state in November filed the appeal in two consolidated cases, after U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction against Florida's ban on same-sex marriage.
Hinkle ruled that the ban, which voters approved in 2008, was unconstitutional. Hinkle's decision ultimately allowed same-sex couples to start getting married in Florida in January.
The appeals court in February put the Florida appeal on hold because of the then-pending U.S. Supreme Court case that involved gay-marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.
The February order also directed the parties in the Florida case to notify the court 21 days after a Supreme Court ruling about any remaining issues. The state complied with that directive by filing the motion Friday.
"Appellants (state officials and the Washington County clerk of court) respectfully state in response to the court's inquiry that no issues remain pending in these appeals,'' the document said.
Bondi made clear after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Florida would comply.
"We have always sought finality on this important constitutional issue, and today the United States Supreme Court provided the clarity our state and country was seeking," she said at the time. "Legal efforts were not about personal beliefs or opinions, but rather, the rule of law. The United States Supreme Court has the final word on interpreting the Constitution, and the court has spoken."
(The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.)
