The Supreme Court declined to block a court ruling that allowed gay marriage to go ahead in Oregon on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
The court turned down without comment an emergency application to suspend the ruling, filed by a conservative group, the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage, the AP reported.
On May 19, a federal judge struck down the state's gay marriage ban, according to the AP. State officials accepted the ruling and declined to appeal and the ruling went into effect immediately, allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.
The National Organization for Marriage was not a party in the case and asked the high court to suspend the lower court's ruling so it could litigate whether it could intervene, the AP reported.
The group filed its request with Justice Anthony Kennedy and he referred it to the full court, according to the AP. The justices denied it without comment.
Hundreds of same-sex couples have obtained marriage licenses since McShane's order, including 245 in Multnomah County, the state's largest, the AP reported. Lawyers for the attorney general's office have said they won't appeal McShane's ruling and are fighting the National Organization for Marriage's appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Rosenblum, the attorney general, said there were no legal arguments she could offer in defense of the marriage ban that would be consistent with decisions last year by the U.S. Supreme Court and with state laws, according to the AP.
Before last month's court ruling, Oregon law had long prohibited same-sex marriage, and voters added the ban to the state constitution in 2004, the AP reported. The decision, approved by 57 percent of voters, came months after Multnomah County briefly issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples. A
