Indiana, Wisconsin appeal gay-marriage rulings to Supreme Court
Indiana and Wisconsin officials each filed appeals Tuesday asking the Supreme Court to review a ruling that deemed the states’ bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.
“Our state, nation and all persons involved need a final, unambiguous and conclusive answer from the Supreme Court on the legal authority of states to license marriages, and we ask the court to take up this question through either our case or another case at its earliest opportunity,” Indiana Atty. Gen. Greg Zoeller said in a statement.
Both states’ appeals ask the Supreme Court to decide whether the 14th Amendment prohibits states from defining marriage as only between one man and one woman, and from refusing to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago unanimously affirmed lower courts’ decisions on the matter.
“Indiana and Wisconsin have given us no reason to think they have a ‘reasonable basis’ for forbidding same-sex marriage,” Thursday’s ruling said. “The discrimination against same-sex couples is irrational, and therefore unconstitutional.”
The Supreme Court’s justices are scheduled to meet Sept. 29 to begin deciding which cases they will hear in the court’s upcoming term, which starts next month.
Times staff writer Christine Mai-Duc contributed to this report.
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