On March 14, 2014, several same-sex couples residing in Indiana filed a lawsuit against the state of Indiana, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU and private counsel, asked the court to declare that the ...
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On March 14, 2014, several same-sex couples residing in Indiana filed a lawsuit against the state of Indiana, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU and private counsel, asked the court to declare that the Indiana law banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional; they sought both temporary and permanent injunctive relief. (Plaintiffs amended the complaint on April 3, 2014.)
Plaintiffs claimed that Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage violated their rights under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses. Furthermore, they claimed that the lack of Indiana's recognition of same-sex marriages in the state, and marriages legally conducted in other states, had interfered with the flow of various benefits, both tangible and intangible, within their families.
On June 25, 2014, the Court (Judge Richard L. Young) decided the case for the plaintiffs. In an opinion entered in this case, as well as Baskin v. Bogan (
PB-IN-0005), and Lee v. Pence (
PB-IN-0008), Judge Young entered a judgment on both plaintiffs' and defendants' motions for summary judgment. He entered a permanent injunction ordering the State: not to deny marriage licenses to same-sex applicants and not to enforce the same-sex marriage ban; and to administer the same services and benefits to all married couples regardless if they are same-sex or different-sex. The district court stayed its decision pending appeal; defendants filed that appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on the same day.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed in an opinion by Judge Posner. Baskin v. Bogan, 766 F.3d 648 (7th Cir. 2014). As in the district court, that opinion addressed this case as well as Baskin v. Bogan (
PB-IN-0005), and Lee v. Pence (
PB-IN-0008). The defendants sought review in the Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeals stayed the effective date of its decision pending the Supreme Court's resolution of that review petition.
The Supreme Court denied review in Bogan v. Baskin (as well as several other cases) on October 6, 2014, and the next day, the Seventh Circuit issued its mandate affirming the District Court's judgment invalidating and enjoining Indiana's prohibition of same-sex marriage.
Alex Wharton - 10/08/2014
compress summary
