BOISE, Idaho — A federal magistrate judge on Wednesday rejected a request from Idaho’s governor to put same-sex weddings on hold while he appeals her ruling from a day earlier that struck down the state’s same-sex marriage ban.
US District Magistrate Judge Candy Dale wrote that the appeal is unlikely to succeed so there’s no reason to keep the state from granting marriage licenses to gay couples starting Friday.
Dale noted she already found Governor C.L. ‘‘Butch’’ Otter’s arguments lacked legal merit when she struck down the ban Tuesday evening.
In Arkansas on Wednesday, that state’s Supreme Court rejected the state attorney general’s request to put on hold a ruling that overturned Arkansas’ constitutional ban on gay marriage.
The court gave no direction to counties about what they should do, instead pointing them to a separate state law that bars clerks from issuing same-sex marriage licenses. Two counties had kept issuing licenses earlier Wednesday despite that prohibition; the state’s largest county said it would stop after initially saying it would continue.