Supreme Court lifts stay on gay marriage in Idaho, weddings could soon go forward

Gay marriage is now likely to move forward in Idaho, the Associated Press reports, after the Supreme Court on Friday lifted an earlier stay that had blocked weddings from going forward.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage, but the state promised it would appeal. Then on Wednesday, Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a stay on the appeals court ruling. (And by a sheer clerical error, Kennedy also temporarily stopped marriages in Nevada, too, but this misunderstanding was soon cleared up.)

But now that Supreme Court hold for Idaho, too, has been lifted.

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There is still one wrinkle, though, as the Idaho Statesman explains: The lower court withdrew its formal order to carry out the ruling — called a "mandate" — after Kennedy issued the earlier stay. However, now all it would take for marriages to move forward in Idaho is for the court to reissue the mandate once again.:

This rush of activity has followed the Supreme Court's decision on Monday to not hear appeals in several other states where marriage bans had been overturned — putting events in motion for gay marriages to be recognized in many more parts of the country than they were just a week ago.