Sevcik v. Sandoval

rdf:langString Sevcik v. Sandoval

rdf:langString Sevcik v. Sandoval

rdf:langString Court of Appeals Docket: 12-17668

rdf:langString District Court Docket: 2:12-cv-00578

rdf:langString Supreme Court Docket: 14A374

rdf:langString September 2022

rdf:langString The judgment of the district court is reversed and the case remanded with an order to enjoin Nevada from enforcement the state's same-sex marriage ban.

rdf:langString Ronald M. Gould, and

rdf:langString Reinhardt, joined by Gould, Berzon

rdf:langString incidence is normally used only in the singular form, perhaps incidence, incidents, or instances was intended

rdf:langString Sevcik v. Sandoval is the lead case that successfully challenged Nevada's denial of same-sex marriage as mandated by that state's constitution and statutory law. The plaintiffs' complaint was initially filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada on April 10, 2012, on behalf of several couples denied marriage licenses. These couples challenged the denial on the basis of the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection. On November 26, 2012, Chief District Judge Robert Jones ruled against the plaintiff same-sex couples, granting in part a motion to dismiss the complaint against the Nevada government officials named in it. The plaintiffs appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on December 3, 2012. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in Sevcik and two related cases, Jackson v. Abercrombie and Latta v. Otter, on September 8, 2014. On October 7, the panel reversed the lower court's ruling in Sevcik, remanding the case back to district court with direction to enter a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. This effectively legalized same-sex marriage in Nevada. After at least one judge on the Court of Appeals asked for a vote on the defendants' petition to have the case reheard by a larger, 11-judge panel, a majority of judges on the Ninth Circuit did not agree; thus making the ruling final on January 9, 2015.