MADISON, WI–The ACLU argued last Monday in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban denies same-sex couples legal protections and serves no legitimate government purpose. The ACLU was pressing the court to preserve a ruling decided this summer by Judge Barbara Crabb.
State attorneys under the stewardship of Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen have asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Crabb’s ruling. The court has consolidated the case with a similar appeal from Indiana state attorneys; oral arguments are set for Aug. 26 in Chicago.
“By withholding from them the respect, recognition, and support that only marriage confers, Wisconsin stigmatizes these couples and their families as unworthy of the opportunity to express and legally embody their commitment in the most profound way that society provides,” ACLU attorneys wrote in their brief, according to the Associated Press.
Wisconsin voters amended the state constitution in 2006 to ban gay marriage, instead offering a domestic registry. Most same-sex couples say that while the registry offers some legal protections, it falls far short of protections and benefits of full marriage. The ACLU filed its lawsuit challenging the ban in February. Crabb ruled in June that the ban deprives gay couples of their due process and equal protection rights. More than 500 same-sex couples married in Wisconsin in the week between Crabb’s decision and her order to halt the marriages pending Van Hollen’s appeal.
Wisconsin Department of Justice attorneys filed a brief with the 7th Circuit late last month arguing there’s no fundamental right to gay marriage. Crabb’s ruling essentially created a new right that would dramatically expand federal authority into a realm traditionally controlled by the states, they said.
Gay marriage is legal in 19 states as well as the District of Columbia.
Gay marriage advocates have won more than 20 court victories across the country since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage.
