NEW YORK CITY — In addition to the four sets of plaintiffs who filed requests with the Supreme Court in the past week, asking the justices to take up a case addressing same-sex couples' marriage rights, a fifth case — this one out of Louisiana — has now found its way up to the high court.
Plaintiffs in the case challenging Louisiana's ban on same-sex couples' marriages on Thursday filed a request at the Supreme Court seeking review of their case — before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has done so. Kenneth Upton, with Lambda Legal, is the lead counsel on the filing to the justices.
The 5th Circuit tentatively scheduled arguments in marriage cases out of Louisiana, where the district court judge upheld the ban, and Texas, where the district court judge struck down the ban, for appellate arguments in the beginning of January.
Thursday's request, a petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment, is a rare procedural move that parties can take to try to bypass the appeals court and get immediate review by the Supreme Court. Multiple parties to litigation challenging the Defense of Marriage Act filed such petitions in 2012 as the issue made its way up to the justices.
