Arizona and Alaska became official on Friday. (See Alaska thread for info on that state).
Arizona's AG decided not to appeal the court ruling there, and couples began marrying.
The addition of these states brings the total allowing same-sex marriage to 31. That's an amazing turn of events, considering that two years ago the total was six!
http://news.yahoo.com/judge-strikes-down-arizonas … 16159.html
Again, we knew this was a possibility once the federal court rulings started rolling in almost unanimously against gay marriage bans (except for 1 ruling in Louisiana).
But it still surprised me when the court went that route. I had thought that same sex marriage was such an important issue that the Supreme Court would want to have a direct say in it instead of just allowing lower-court rulings to stand. Apparently they've decided they've just had enough of the issue. Since the justices are all elderly, most of them are probably not comfortable with gay rights issues and would rather avoid them when possible. And the lower federal courts have so far made avoiding a direct ruling on gay marriage possible.