Same-sex marriage in South Carolina has been legal since a federal court order took effect on November 20, 2014. Another court ruling on November 18 had ordered the state to recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. Following the 2014 ruling of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Bostic v. Schaefer, which found Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional and set precedent on every state in the circuit, one judge accepted marriage license applications from same-sex couples until the South Carolina Supreme Court, in response to a request by the Attorney General, ordered him to stop. A federal district court ruled South Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional on November 12, with implementation of that decision stayed until noon on November 20. The first same-sex wedding ceremony was held on November 19. Legal history Restrictions In 1996, the South Carolina House of Representatives, by a vote of 82 to 0, passed a statute defining marriage as "between one man and one woman". The South Carolina Senate passed the bill on a voice vote, and Governor David Beasley signed it into law. On March 1, 2005, the House of Representatives approved Amendment 1, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and any "lawful domestic union", by a vote of 96 to 3. On April 13, 2005, the Senate passed the amendment by a vote of 42 to 1, and on November 7, 2006, South Carolina voters approved the amendment. Constitutional amendments in South Carolina need to be approved by two-thirds of each house of the General Assembly, approved by the people in an election, and then ratified by a majority of each house of the Assembly. On January 25, 2007, the House of Representatives ratified the amendment 92 to 7, and on February 27, 2007 the Senate voted 41–1 to ratify the amendment. Lawsuits Bradacs v. Haley On August 28, 2013, Tracie Goodwin and Katie Bradacs, who had married in the District of Columbia in April 2012 and were raising three children, filed a lawsuit, Bradacs v. Haley, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, challenging the state statute and constitutional amendment that denied legal recognition to same-sex marriages established in other jurisdictions. The plaintiffs were a state highway patrol officer and a disabled veteran of the U.S. Air Force. They named Governor Nikki Haley and Attorney General Alan Wilson as defendants. The case was initially assigned to