Washington, Jan 6 (EFE).- The Supreme Court called a temporary halt Monday to a recent decision allowing same-sex marriages in Utah pending a ruling by a federal appeals court.
The high court order suspends the Dec. 20 verdict by U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby, who found that a state law barring same-sex unions violates the federal Constitution.
Shelby's ruling permitted more than 900 gay and lesbian couples to wed in the heavily Mormon state.
Soon after Shelby's verdict was handed down, the Utah Attorney General's Office filed an appeal before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Denver.
The state also sent a request to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is entrusted with emergency pleas from the six states in the 10th Circuit, seeking an injunction while the appeal is being heard.
Sotomayor referred the plea to the full court, which granted that plea on Monday without explanation.
State authorities want to continue applying a regulation that Utah voters approved in a 2004 referendum, which defined marriage as a bond only possible between one man and one woman.
More than 60 percent of Utah's 2.8 million residents belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which staunchly opposes same-sex marriage.
With the suspension of same-sex marriages in Utah, the number of states where unions between persons of the same sex are legal remains at 17, plus the District of Colombia.
In June 2013, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined wedlock as "the union between one man and one woman," consequently blocking recognition and tax benefits at a federal level for married couples of the same sex.
