9th Circuit Court of Appeals takes up same-sex marriage challenges

On Monday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals takes up legal challenges seeking to throw out same-sex marriage bans in Hawaii, Idaho and Nevada.

In Hawaii and Nevada, the U.S. District Courts upheld the bans on same sex marriage. In Idaho, the ban was overturned.

Nevada’s constitutional ban was challenged by a group of same-sex couples arguing the ban violates their rights to due process and equal protection. Their case was partially dismissed by the district court, effectively upholding the ban. Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto has since announced she will no longer defend the ban, so an organization called the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage intervened.

That organization has been told it should be prepared to first justify its standing to participate in Monday’s hearing.

Hawaii’s ban has since been overturned by the state Legislature and same-sex couples are getting married in the Aloha State.

Idaho’s constitutional amendment was overturned by a U.S. Magistrate who wrote the laws “withhold from (same sex couples) a profound and personal choice.”

All three appeals will be heard by a three-member panel consisting of Judges Stephen Reinhardt, Ronald Gould and Marsha Berzon.

Reinhardt wrote the opinion which overturned California’s Proposition 8, banning same sex marriage in that state.