Gergel ruled for the plaintiffs and stayed his decision until noon on November 20. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the state's request for a stay pending appeal or a temporary stay on November 18. Attorney General Wilson asked Chief Justice John Roberts, as Circuit Justice for the Fourth Circuit, for an emergency stay pending appeal later that day. He made an argument other states in similar cases had not made to the Supreme Court, that the principle of federalism known as the "domestic relations exception"–which restricts the role of federal courts in certain areas reserved to the states–required clarification. Justice Roberts referred the request to the full court, which denied it on November 20, with Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissenting. On the morning of November 19, 2014, Judge Condon began to issue marriage licenses to those who had applied prior to the state Supreme Court's order. Kayla Bennett and Kristin Anderson held their marriage ceremony outside of the Charleston County Probate Court, marking the state's first licensed same-sex marriage. Some probate courts began processing marriage license applications for same-sex couples on November 19, and more of them on November 20. Lexington County Probate Judge Daniel Eckstrom announced on November 20 that his county would continue to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples "until this matter is conclusively resolved" or he is ordered to do so. The county reversed itself that same day and began to issue marriage licenses. On December 1, Wilson asked the Fourth Circuit to suspend proceedings in Condon pending U.S. Supreme Court action on writs of certiorari on other same-sex marriage cases from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He told the court that he would be submitting a request for certiorari before judgment in Condon as well and that the other parties to this case did not object to his request. On December 16, the Fourth Circuit consolidated Bradacs and Condon as Bleckley v. Wilson and put proceedings on hold pending action by the U.S. Supreme Court on certiorari petitions. On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry under the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in the United States. In August 2015, Judge Gergel ordered Wilson in his official capacity as Attorney General to pay more than