Today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide may have big impacts for some states, but won't change things in Washington or Idaho.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Washington since 2012, when voters upheld a law passed by the Legislature but challenged by some conservative groups. Washington joined the case decided today in a friend of the court filing that argued in favor of overturning other states' bans of same sex-marriage.

Peter Lavallee, a spokesman for the Washington attorney general's office, said the main effect of the ruling for state residents is that same-sex couples married in Washington will have their marriages recognized in any other state when they travel or move there. Previously, same-sex couples from Washington could be denied certain rights, such as visiting a spouse in a hospital, in a state that didn't recognize their marriage.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Idaho since last fall, when a federal court overturned a constitutional amendment in that state that made it illegal. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to overturn that lower court decision, and Idaho Attorney General Larry Wasden and Gov. Butch Otter filed separate requests with the U.S. Supreme Court early this year to hear an appeal.

But the high court has not agreed to hear the Idaho case. Today's decision means it probably won't, and same-sex couples will continue to receive marriage licenses.

"The decision doesn't change the current landscape here," Todd Dvorak, a spokesman for Wasden, said. 

The constitutional provision remains on the books, and the attorney general's office is reviewing the decision to determine what steps, if any, the state would need to take regarding the law.

  

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