Supreme Court won't
take gay marriage case
By AP from
heraldnet.com on the Web, October 11, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Without comment,
the Supreme Court refused to intervene Tuesday in a legal fight over same-sex
marriage, declining an appeal from a gay California couple who were denied a
license to wed.
The case of Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer of Mission Viejo, Calif., were
among a number of cases justices turned down Tuesday.
The men had sought a marriage license in Southern California's Orange County in
2004 and, after they were turned down, filed a federal lawsuit that challenged
federal and state laws against same-sex marriage.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in May that the couple should await
the outcome of the state court challenge. Last week, a California appeals
court upheld the state ban on same-sex weddings. That case appears headed
for the California Supreme Court.
Among cases the Supreme Court turned down Tuesday:
* W.R. Grace & Co.'s bid to get out from under a $54 million bill to clean up
asbestos in the Montana mining town of Libby.
* The case of Sandra Cano, one of the women behind the legalization of abortion,
who had sought to reverse the victory she won 33 years ago.
* A political polling firm challenging a North Dakota law that bars
telemarketers from making prerecorded interstate calls to the state's residents.
* The case of a former guard at a Nazi slave camp suffering from Alzheimer's
disease whose U.S. citizenship the Justice Department succeeded in revoking.
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