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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) Cheryl Maples, an attorney who successfully challenged Arkansas’ gay marriage ban before the nation’s highest court said same-sex couples could wed, has died at age 69.
Melina Maples-Granger, Maples’ daughter, said Maples died Thursday in Little Rock from complications of congestive heart failure.
Maples represented same-sex couples who challenged Arkansas’ constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. A county judge struck the amendment down in 2014, which led to more than 500 same-sex couples marrying before the ruling was suspended by the state Supreme Court. Justices didn’t rule before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2015.
A federal judge also struck down the Arkansas ban in 2014 but also suspended her ruling.
Maples also represented same-sex couples who successfully challenged Arkansas’ birth certificate law.
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