CBS Miami

October 6, 2014 1:27 PM

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – By turning away appeals from a handful of states which wanted to prohibit same-sex unions, the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for an immediate expansion of gay marriage.

The court’s order effectively makes gay marriage legal now in 30 states.

Without comment, the justices brought to an end delays in same-sex marriages in five states— Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Chief Justice John Roberts did not say a word about same-sex marriage as he began the court’s new term.

Couples in six other states — Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming — should be able to get married in short order. Those states would be bound by the same appellate rulings that were put on hold pending the Supreme Court’s review.

No other state cases were currently pending with the high court, but the justices stopped short of resolving for now the question of same-sex marriage nationwide. Still, those 11 states would bring to 30 the number of states where same-sex marriage is legal, plus the District of Columbia.

Challenges are pending in every other state.

“Today is a momentous day in American history, one of the surest signs yet that the Supreme Court now recognizes what many of us have known to be true for years: denying same-sex couples the ability to marry is discrimination before the law, pure and simple,” said U.S Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in a statement. “In Florida, the groundswell had already begun with South Florida courts taking the lead in striking down the state’s ban. Love is love, and it is now only a matter of when, not if, same-sex marriage bans are struck down here at home and across the rest of the United States.”

Judges in four Florida counties — Palm Beach, Monroe, Miami-Dade and Broward— have overturned Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage.

But Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office has appealed the rulings and asked judges to stop ruling on same-sex marriage cases until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether states can ban gay marriage.

Separately, a federal judge in Tallahassee also has overturned the ban.