Arkansas Supreme Court puts brakes on same-sex marriages

The highest court in the socially conservative southern state of Arkansas halted the distribution of marriage licenses to same-sex couples as it suspended a judge's ruling that struck down the state's same-sex marriage ban.

The state Supreme Court granted a request Friday to put on hold a lower court judge's decision voiding a 2004 constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza's struck down the ban last week, and expanded that ruling Thursday to include all state laws preventing gay couples from marrying.

Seventeen other states allow gay marriage. In a stunning string of legal victories for gay marriage advocates this year, federal and state judges have ruled against bans in Michigan, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, Texas, Arkansas, and Idaho and ordered Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. In some places judges have put their own orders on hold, while in others higher courts have done so after court clerks allowed some same-sex couples to marry.

The issue is expected to eventually be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the largest county in Arkansas, Pulaski County had resumed issuing same-sex marriage licenses immediately after Piazza's ruling Thursday, while another county began issuing them again Friday morning.

More than 540 same-sex couples received Arkansas marriage licenses since Piazza's ruling last week, but the validity of those licenses remained uncertain.Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and Gov. Mike Beebe have said that's an issue the high court will ultimately have to decide.

McDaniel and four counties named in the lawsuit had asked the high court to suspend Piazza's decision while it's on appeal, saying otherwise it would lead to confusion among Arkansas' 75 counties.

A lawyer for the couples suing over Arkansas' ban said they'd now focus on the appeal before the state Supreme Court and was confident the state's prohibition would ultimately be struck down.

McDaniel's office said the order ended the uncertainty for the state's clerks.

Out west in Idaho, plans for same-sex marriages to begin Friday were put on hold as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether the governor and attorney general should have more time to file an appeal a judge's ruling overturning its state ban. A federal judge on Friday said he'll issue a decision next week on a constitutional challenge to Oregon's same-sex marriage ban.

The head of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group, said he was hopeful Arkansas' ban would eventually fall.

"We're confident that when the Supreme Court hears this case, they'll choose to be on the right side of history," said HRC President Chad Griffin, an Arkansasnative.

The group has asked the Justice Department to extend federal recognition to the couples.

The Arkansas Supreme Court had denied a request earlier in the week to stay Piazza's initial ruling, but still effectively halted same-sex weddings by also noting that a separate law prohibiting clerks from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples was still on the books.

In his revised and expanded order, Piazza said no one in the state was harmed by the marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples. He rejected the state's request to put his decision on hold, saying gay couples would be harmed by that action.

Associated Press writers Christina Huynh and Kurt Voigt contributed to this report