Kansas Supreme Court to Deliberate Gay Marriage

The Kansas Supreme Court has announced plans to begin deliberating a same-sex marriage case on the same day that a mass wedding was planned in Wichita.

The hearing planned for Monday stems from a petition that Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed after a Johnson County judge directed that marriage licenses be issued to same-sex couples. But even before the hearing, gay couples were moving ahead with wedding plans.

The rush to wed comes after the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a request from Kansas to prevent gay and lesbian couples from marrying while the state fights the issue in court. Kansas went to the Supreme Court after the American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of two lesbian couples denied marriage licenses in Douglas and Sedgwick counties.