The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today granted a motion for an expedited hearing in a state appeal of a same-sex marriage ruling from South Dakota and to combine the case with pending appeals from Missouri and Arkansas.

The arguments will be May 11 in Omaha, said Michael Gans, clerk of the appellate court in St. Louis.

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Gans said the three-judge panels that hear cases are assigned a year in advance by computer according to hearing schedules, but changes sometimes can occur. As a result, the three judges to hear this case won’t be announced — though they are known internally — until about a month before the hearing.

District judges in all three states have held state same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional. All three states are appealing the rulings.

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