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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has about six weeks to file its appeal in the same-sex marriage recognition case.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals set a Sept. 22 deadline Tuesday for the state to appeal a lower court ruling in Evans v. Utah.
U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball ruled in May that Utah must extend marital benefits to about 1,300 gay and lesbian couples who married during the brief time it was legal in the state this past winter. He temporarily stayed his decision.
The U.S. Supreme Court extended the stay pending a decision in the 10th Circuit.
JoNell Evans and Stacia Ireland, Donald Johnson and Carl Fritz Shultz, Matthew Barraza and Tony Milner, and Elenor Heyborne and Marina Gomberg sued the state to have their marriages recognized. All were married in Utah between Dec. 20, 2013, and Jan. 6.
The marriage recognition case is separate from the original federal case, Kitchen v. Herbert, challenging the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.
