The Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA),also referred to by proponents as the Marriage Protection Amendment,was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would legally define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. The FMA would also prevent judicial extension of marriage rights to same-sex couples.
Orrin Grant Hatch was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator in history,overtaking Ted Stevens,until Chuck Grassley surpassed him in 2023.
Frank Edward "Ted" Moss was an American lawyer and politician. A Democrat,from 1959 to 1977 he served as a United States Senator from Utah,and is currently the last Democrat to do so.
Utah Constitutional Amendment 3 was an amendment to the Utah state constitution that sought to define marriage as a union exclusively between a man and woman. It passed in the November 2,2004,election,as did similar amendments in ten other states.
The rights of lesbian,gay,bisexual,transgender,and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Utah have significantly evolved in the 21st century. Protective laws have become increasingly enacted since 2014,despite the state's reputation as socially conservative and highly religious. Utah's anti-sodomy law was invalidated in 2003 by Lawrence v. Texas,and fully repealed by the state legislature in 2019. Same-sex marriage has been legal since the state's ban was ruled unconstitutional by federal courts in 2014. In addition,statewide anti-discrimination laws now cover sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and housing,and the use of conversion therapy on minors is prohibited. In spite of this,there are still a few differences between the treatment of LGBTQ people and the rest of the population,and the rights of transgender youth are restricted.
Dee Vance Benson was an American jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah. He was nominated as judge by President George H. W. Bush on May 16,1991,and confirmed by the United States Senate on September 12,1991. In May 2004,Chief Justice William Rehnquist appointed Benson to serve as a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a seven-year term.
Scott Milne Matheson Jr. is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He has served on that court since 2010.
Brett L. Tolman is an American lawyer. He served as a United States attorney for the District of Utah from July 2006 to December 2009. Before becoming U.S. attorney,Tolman worked as counsel in the Senate Judiciary Committee for committee chairs Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and then Arlen Specter (R-PA) during the 109th United States Congress. Tolman's most noteworthy work in the Senate is his role in the passage of the 2005 Patriot Act reauthorization. He was instrumental in the revisions to the appointment process of interim U.S. attorneys and is a major figure in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
Robert Neil Chatigny is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.
Clark Waddoups is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah.
Brian Theadore Stewart is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah.
Joseph Francis Bataillon is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.
Terence Curtis Kern is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Utah since October 6,2014. On December 20,2013,the state began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as a result of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah's ruling in the case of Kitchen v. Herbert,which found that barring same-sex couples from marrying violates the U.S. Constitution. The issuance of those licenses was halted during the period of January 6,2014 until October 6,2014,following the resolution of a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. On that day,following the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal in a case that found Utah's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional,the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the state to recognize same-sex marriage.
On May 26,2009,President Barack Obama announced his selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Sotomayor's nomination was submitted to the United States Senate on June 1,2009,when the 111th Congress reconvened after its Memorial Day recess. Sotomayor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 6,2009 by a 68–31 vote,and was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts on August 8,2009,becoming the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Indiana since October 6,2014. The state had previously restricted marriage to different-sex couples by statute in 1986. Legislation passed in 1997 denied recognition to same-sex relationships established in other jurisdictions. A lawsuit challenging the state's refusal to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples,Baskin v. Bogan,won a favorable ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on June 25,2014. Until the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the district court's ruling on June 27,most Indiana counties issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling in Baskin on September 4. A ruling in Bowling v. Pence stated that the state must recognize same-sex marriages performed out-of-state and the decision was stayed until the Seventh Circuit ruled on the merits in similar cases. It also stated that the ruling would remain stayed if the circuit court stayed its decision in the related cases.
This article contains a timeline of significant events regarding same-sex marriage in the United States. On June 26,2015,the landmark US Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges effectively ended restrictions on same-sex marriage in the United States.
Kitchen v. Herbert,961 F.Supp.2d 1181,affirmed,755 F.3d 1193;stay granted,134 S.Ct. 893 (2014);petition for certiorari denied,No. 14-124,2014 WL 3841263,is the federal case that successfully challenged Utah's constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples and similar statutes. Three same-sex couples filed suit in March 2013,naming as defendants Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert,Attorney General John Swallow,and Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen in their official capacities.
In the United States,the history of same-sex marriage dates from the early 1940s,when the first lawsuits seeking legal recognition of same-sex relationships brought the question of civil marriage rights and benefits for same-sex couples to public attention though they proved unsuccessful. However marriage wasn't a request for the LGBTQ movement until the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington (1987). The subject became increasingly prominent in U.S. politics following the 1993 Hawaii Supreme Court decision in Baehr v. Miike that suggested the possibility that the state's prohibition might be unconstitutional. That decision was met by actions at both the federal and state level to restrict marriage to male-female couples,notably the enactment at the federal level of the Defense of Marriage Act.
The 2000 presidential campaign of Orrin Hatch,a U.S. senator from Utah,officially began on July 1,1999,with the establishment of an exploratory committee. Hatch had been a senator since 1977 and at the time of his announcement he was a high-ranking official on several Senate committees,most notably the chairman for the Senate Judiciary Committee. He had established himself as a conservative Republican who was known to work with liberal Democrats on major bipartisan bills,such as the 1997 Children's Health Insurance Program bill. From the beginning of his campaign,Hatch stressed his experience in federal government and attacked the perceived lack of experience of the Republican frontrunner,Texas governor George W. Bush. However,numerous commentators noted that Hatch's campaign was unlikely to succeed,due to his late entry into the race and Bush's dominant position in fundraising and opinion polling. Throughout his campaign,Hatch struggled to raise money and consistently polled in the single digits. In January 2000,he came in last place in the Iowa caucuses and announced on January 26 that he was ending his campaign,supporting eventual nominee Bush,who would go on to win the 2000 United States presidential election. Hatch remained in the Senate for several more years following his campaign and in 2015,as the most senior member of the Senate,he became the president pro tempore. In 2019,he decided to retire,ending his 42-year career as the most senior Republican senator ever before dying in 2022.
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