The lawsuit was filed against Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and Attorney General Sean Reyes in 3rd District Court Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah and law firm Strindberg and Scholnick, which represents couples Donald Johnson and Carl Fritz Shultz, Matthew Barraza and Tony Milner, JoNell Evans and Stacia Ireland, and Elenor Heyborne and Marina Gomberg.
All four couples were married between Dec. 20 — when U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby declared Utah's Amendment 3, Utah's voter-approved definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, unconstitutional — and when the U.S. Supreme Court stayed Shelby's ruling on Jan. 6.
"Although each of these couples have entered valid Utah marriages performed … (with) valid Utah marriage licenses, the state has announced that it has placed recognition of their marriages on hold indefinitely," ACLU of Utah's legal director, John Mejia, said.
