The Supreme Court blocked same-sex couples from marrying in Virginia Wednesday night as the country edges closer to deciding whether marriage equality should be legalized nationwide, USA Today reported.
The ruling puts last month's federal appeals court decision to strike down the ban of same sex marriages on hold. That case, like others that have ended similarly in Utah and Oklahoma, is being appealed by the Supreme Court.
While almost all federal and state courts have ruled in favor of same-sex marriage since the high court issued two game-changing decisions in June 2013, judges have blocked nearly all such marriages while the cases are appealed.
If the court chooses not to hear the Virginia appeal against the marriages, the ban would be lifted and couples could begin heading to the alter. Otherwise, those marriages would have to wait until the cause is ultimately decided, according to Jezebel.
"The Supreme Court is making clear, as it already did in the Utah marriage case, that it believes a dignified process is better than disorder," Byron Babione, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the Virginia court clerk opposed to same-sex marriage, told USA Today.
In Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Utah and Wisconsin, several thousand couples married before the process was interrupted by judges' rulings. That leaves those marriages in a state of legal uncertainty.
The District of Columbia and 19 other states allow same-sex marriage, but it remains banned in the remaining 31 states. Colorado, Nevada and Wisconsin allow domestic partnerships or civil unions.
"We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable," Judge Henry Floyd, originally appointed a district judge by George W. Bush and elevated to the circuit court by President Obama, told USA Today. "However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws."
Even though Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, had sided with same-sex marriage supporters, he said the Supreme Court should block same-sex marriages until the issue is finalized.
