Legal and Moral Dimensions of Utah’s Same-Sex Marriage Fight

The controversies over same-sex marriage continue to take unexpected twists and turns—the latest coming from Utah. The situation on the ground there is tangled at best. The story starts with a decision by a federal district court judge, Robert J. Shelby, that invalidated the state’s same-sex marriage ban, which had been approved by Utah voters. Shelby then decided that he would not stay this controversial ruling until the question was clarified by either the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit or even the Supreme Court. That was a bad decision, with predictable consequences.