After being denied a marriage license, a lesbian couple filed a lawsuit on October 30, 2013, in the Seventeenth Judicial District.

The suit named Governor John Hickenlooper and Denver City Clerk Debra Johnson as defendants.

[7][8] On July 9, 2014, Judge Crabtree ruled that Colorado's same-sex marriage ban violated the plaintiffs' guarantees of equal protection and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: No state since U.S. v. Windsor has been able to justify its ban under even the rational basis test, much less under the strict scrutiny test.

Suthers v. Hall provided legal cover for the Boulder County clerk to issue same-sex marriage licenses as a form of civil disobedience.

When asked to enjoin the Denver County clerk from issuing licenses to same-sex couples, Judge Crabtree refused to take action.

[9][10] In a July 18, 2014, unanimous order issued en banc, the Colorado Supreme Court rejected the attorney general's request for an emergency injunction—one which would have a statewide effect.