article_snippet.sent: Washington Judge Jeffrey Sutton Judge Jeffrey Sutton doesn't have a lot of company on the appeals courts these days.
article_snippet.sent: Sutton, who sits on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, penned the only recent appellate court decision to uphold state bans on same-sex marriage.
article_snippet.sent: Judge Sutton's opinion stands alone," said Jon W. Davidson, legal director of Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy group.
article_snippet.sent: Sutton, 54, is the former state solicitor for Ohio, where he handled appeals for the state's attorney general.
article_snippet.sent: he clerked for Justices Antonin Scalia and Lewis Powell --
article_snippet.sent: Scalia once called Sutton "one of the very best law clerks I ever had.
article_snippet.sent: Appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, Sutton is considered a conservative jurist with a keen interest in states' rights.
article_snippet.sent: Gene Schaerr, a Washington appellate lawyer who help to defend Utah's ban on same-sex marriage, calls Sutton's opinion a road map for whoever might write an opinion supporting state bans.
highlights_snippet.sent: Judge Jeffrey Sutton is behind only recent appellate decision to uphold such state bans .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: "Judge Jeffrey Sutton's opinion stands alone," says official with gay rights advocacy group .