Latta v. Otter
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''Latta v. Otter'' is a case initiated in 2013 in U.S. federal court by plaintiffs seeking to prevent the state of
Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
from enforcing its ban on same-sex marriage. The plaintiffs won in U.S. District Court. The case was appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard this together with two related cases–'' Jackson v. Abercrombie'', and ''
Sevcik v. Sandoval ''Sevcik v. Sandoval'' is the lead case that successfully challenged Nevada's Recognition of same-sex unions in Nevada, denial of same-sex marriage as mandated by that state's constitution and statutory law. The plaintiffs' complaint was initiall ...
''. The Ninth Circuit heard oral argument on September 8 and affirmed the District Court's ruling on October 7. State officials requested and received an emergency stay of the Ninth Circuit's ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on October 8, which Justice Anthony Kennedy vacated on October 10, denying the requested stay.


Introduction

In November 2013, four Idaho lesbian couples filed a lawsuit in
U.S. district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...
, ''Latta v. Otter'', challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. They were represented by the
National Center for Lesbian Rights The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a non-profit, public interest law firm in the United States that advocates for equitable public policies affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, provides free legal ...
. One couple was married in California in 2008, another in New York in 2011. Two of the four couples were raising a child. They named as defendants Governor
Butch Otter Clement Leroy "Butch" Otter (born May 3, 1942) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 32nd governor of Idaho from 2007 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 2006, and reelected in 2010, and 2014. Otter ...
and Ada County Clerk Chris Rich. The parties are disputing Idaho Attorney General
Lawrence Wasden Lawrence Garth Wasden is an American attorney and politician who served as the Idaho Attorney General from 2003 to 2023. First elected in 2002, he was the longest-serving attorney general in Idaho history. Wasden was re-elected four more times be ...
's attempt to intervene on behalf of the state. Both parties asked the court for summary judgment.


U.S. district court ruling

''Latta v. Otter'' was heard before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale on May 5, 2014 and she issued her ruling on May 13. The decision granted the plaintiff same-sex couples' motion for summary judgment, declared Idaho marriage laws that ban same-sex marriage unconstitutional, and enjoined state officials from enforcing any law to the extent it restricts same-sex couples from marrying or from having their marriages recognized. In her decision, Judge Dale dispensed with ''
Baker v. Nelson ''Richard John Baker v. Gerald R. Nelson'', 291 Minn. 310, 191 N.W.2d 185 (1971), was a case in which the Minnesota Supreme Court decided that construing a marriage statute to restrict marriage licenses to persons of the opposite sex "does not ...
'': "The Supreme Court's due process and equal protection jurisprudence has developed significantly in the four decades after ''Baker'', and, in last year's ''
Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
'' decision, the Court dramatically changed tone with regard to laws that withhold marriage benefits from same-sex couples." She argued individual liberty and Fourteenth Amendment protection: "An individual's protected liberties include certain fundamental rights of personhood. These rights center on the most significant decisions of a lifetime—whom to marry, whether to have children, and how to raise and educate children. ... rights sheltered by the Fourteenth Amendment against the State's unwarranted usurpation, disregard, or disrespect." She applied these rights and liberties to same-sex couples: "More recently, the Supreme Court confirmed that gay and lesbian individuals do not forfeit their constitutional liberties simply because of their sexual orientation...the Supreme Court's marriage cases demonstrate that the right to marry is an individual right, belonging to all. If every individual enjoys a constitutional right to marry, what is the substance of that right for gay or lesbian individuals who cannot marry their partners of choice?" (internal citations omitted). Dale summarized by stating: Dale issued an injunction prohibiting the state from denying recognition to same-sex marriages, effective May 16.


U.S. Court of Appeals activity

The defendants appealed to the Ninth Circuit and on May 15 a three-judge panel issued a temporary stay of Judge Dale's injunction. On May 20, the panel granted a stay during appeal. U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz concurred, writing that "solely because I believe that the Supreme Court, in '' Herbert v. Kitchen'' ... has virtually instructed courts of appeals to grant stays in the circumstances before us today. If we were writing on a cleaner state, I would conclude that application of the familiar factors ... counsels against the stay requested by the Idaho appellants." On May 30, state defendants petitioned the Ninth Circuit to hear the case before an ''
en banc In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller ...
'' panel of 11 justices rather than a 3-judge panel because any ruling "will carry profound legal and broader social consequences". The state also argued that there is a
circuit split In United States federal courts, a circuit split occurs when two or more different circuit courts of appeals provide conflicting rulings on the same legal issue. The existence of a circuit split is one of the factors that the Supreme Court of ...
in the U.S. Courts of Appeals with respect to the level of scrutiny used when deciding cases of discrimination based on sexual orientation, that plaintiffs will argue
heightened scrutiny Intermediate scrutiny, in U.S. constitutional law, is the second level of deciding issues using judicial review. The other levels are typically referred to as rational basis review (least rigorous) and strict scrutiny (most rigorous). In order t ...
, based on the Ninth Circuit decision in '' SmithKline Beecham Corp. v. Abbott Labs.'', while the other circuits have applied the less restrictive standard of scrutiny called "
rational basis review In U.S. constitutional law, rational basis review is the normal standard of review that courts apply when considering constitutional questions, including due process or equal protection questions under the Fifth Amendment or Fourteenth Amendment ...
." On August 19, the Ninth Circuit denied the state's request for an initial hearing ''en banc''. It scheduled oral argument for September 8 before Judges
Stephen Reinhardt Stephen Roy Reinhardt (born Stephen Roy Shapiro; March 27, 1931 – March 29, 2018) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with chambers in Los Angeles, California. He was the last federal ...
,
Ronald M. Gould Ronald Murray Gould (born October 17, 1946) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1999. Education Gould was born in 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduate ...
, and
Marsha Berzon Marsha Lee Berzon ( Siegel; born April 17, 1945) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Education and legal training Berzon graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Radcliffe ...
. Because of public interest in this and other same-sex marriage cases under Ninth Circuit jurisdiction, the court set up a web site where orders and filings in these cases can be downloaded as they become available. The Ninth Circuit heard oral argument on September 8. It upheld the district court's ruling on October 7. The Ninth Circuit's order implementing its decision was challenged by Idaho officials in the early morning hours of October 8. They asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay while they pursued further litigation, and Justice
Anthony Kennedy Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by Presid ...
granted a temporary stay within hours. The plaintiffs responded on October 9. On October 10, after Justice Kennedy withdrew his emergency stay in ''Latta'', Idaho Governor
Butch Otter Clement Leroy "Butch" Otter (born May 3, 1942) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 32nd governor of Idaho from 2007 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 2006, and reelected in 2010, and 2014. Otter ...
announced the state would no longer attempt to preserve the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples. Also on October 10, the Latta plaintiffs asked the Ninth Circuit to lift the stay of the district court's order that it had imposed on May 20. The Ninth Circuit gave the parties until October 13 to reply. On October 13, the Ninth Circuit rejected the contrary arguments and lifted its stay of the district court's order enjoining Idaho officials from enforcing the state's ban on same-sex marriage, effective 9 a.m. PDT October 15. On October 21, Governor Otter asked the Ninth Circuit to re-hear the case ''en banc''. Having received no response, both he and the state filed petitions for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court on December 30, 2014, and January 2, 2015, respectively. The Ninth Circuit denied the request for rehearing ''en banc'' on January 9, 2015. Latta asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case. That court, on June 26 ruled in ''
Obergefell v. Hodges ''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark LGBT rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protect ...
'' that denying marriage rights to same-sex couples is unconstitutional. On June 30, the Supreme Court denied that
certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...
request.


See also

*
LGBT rights in Idaho Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S state of Idaho face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT people. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Idaho, and same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since Oc ...
*
Same-sex marriage in Idaho Same-sex marriage in Idaho has been legally recognized since October 15, 2014. In May 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho in the case of ''Latta v. Otter'' found Idaho's statutory and state constitutional bans on same-sex marr ...


References

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External links


Ninth Circuit Opinion, October 7, 2014
Legal history of Idaho LGBT in Idaho United States same-sex union case law 2014 in United States case law 2014 in Idaho United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit cases 2014 in LGBT history