Group to file arguments in same-sex marriage case
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
POSTED: March 28, 2008
DES MOINES — A gay rights organization will file legal arguments on Friday in a case that will decide whether the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is legal.
New York-based Lambda Legal, which has spearheaded a same-sex marriage drive across the country, planned to file the arguments in a lawsuit on behalf of six gay and lesbian couples who were denied marriage licenses.
An initial lawsuit was filed in Polk County District Court in 2005, naming former Polk County recorder and registrar Timothy Brien.
That suit prompted a ruling last August by Judge Robert Hanson, who said the state law allowing marriage only between a man and a woman violates the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection.
The judge said the state law banning same-sex marriage must be nullified, severed and stricken from the books and that the state’s marriage laws must be rewritten to become gender neutral.
A day later, Hanson stayed the decision, but only after more than 20 same-sex marriage applications had been accepted and one couple, Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan of Ames, were married. They had obtained a judge’s waiver of Iowa’s three-day waiting period for marriage licenses.
