ED WHELAN: Judicial Recklessness in Utah.

One point on which all sober legal minds ought to be able to agree, irrespective of their different positions on same-sex “marriage”, is that a single federal district court decision ought not be allowed to override the marriage laws of a state. Yet that is exactly what federal district judge Robert James Shelby is trying to achieve by his astounding refusal to issue a stay pending appeal of his ruling last Friday that Utah’s definition of traditional marriage violates the federal Constitution. . . .

What Judge Shelby (a recent Obama appointee) is plainly trying to do is sow chaos in order to alter the terrain while the appeal of his ruling is pending. That’s a grossly irresponsible course of action, and the Tenth Circuit—or the Supreme Court—should put a quick stop to it.

Follow-up here.