On July 18, it was announced that the Sala IV would rule on two lawsuits from 2013 and 2015 challenging the constitutionality of articles 14 and 242 of the Family Code, as well as article 4 of the 2013 "General Young Person's Act", in the first half of August 2018. On August 3, the Commissioner for LGBTI Population Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic, Luis Salazar, presented a letter asking the Sala IV to legalize same-sex marriage, signed by 182 public figures, including former presidents Luis Guillermo Solís, Laura Chinchilla, Óscar Arias and Abel Pacheco. On August 8, 2018, the Sala IV declared all three of the articles in question unconstitutional and gave the Legislative Assembly 18 months (from the publication of the ruling) to amend the laws accordingly. If the Assembly did not comply, both same-sex marriage and same-sex de facto unions would automatically become legal when the deadline passed. The ruling was welcomed by President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, but several lawmakers expressed doubts that the Legislative Assembly would amend the law before the deadline.