Arkansas Supreme Court Issues Stay In Same-sex Marriage Decision

The Arkansas Supreme Court has issued a stay of Judge Chris Piazza’s decision, once again halting same-sex marriage licenses from being issued.

The ruling is short – only one sentence long. For now, no more same-sex marriage licenses can be issued while Attorney General Dustin McDaniel appeals Piazza’s ruling. That also means that couples who were issued a license and may have even had a ceremony performed, but did not yet return the license to the county clerk’s office, cannot have that license filed at this time.

The ruling offered no clarification as to why the stay was granted, but the Attorney General and counties had argued that without a final decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court, there would be confusion among county clerks as to whether or not to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Now within just one week in Pulaski County, licenses have been issued, halted, issued for a day and a half, and once again halted.

So far, more than 400 same-sex couples have been married, most in Pulaski and Washington counties.

Read more from our content partner, KATV Ch. 7 News, here.