A federal judge declared Wednesday that a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban will continue.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled a challenge to the case invalid, asking for a dismissal led by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. The attorney general had asked the case to be dismissed because he claimed the eight same-sex couples who filed the suit in February did not address specific Wisconsin statutes. Van Hollen said the case was obscure, which would make the defense difficult.
In Crabb’s opinion, she argued the plaintiffs specifically challenged the constitutional definition of marriage, as defined by a man and a woman in Wisconsin’s Constitution. The same-sex couples are also challenging the state’s marriage evasion law. The law allows for the prosecution of Wisconsin resident same-sex couples who marry in other states and the punishment is either nine months in prison or up to $10,000.
Crabb wrote that the state’s defense “are asking the court to force plaintiffs to join as a defendant every county clerk in the state of Wisconsin.”
Van Hollen did see his motion to drop three defendants from the suit granted.
Revenue Secretary Rick Chandler, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and Eau Claire County District Attorney Gary King were all dropped from the case.
Chandler enforces Wisconsin’s tax laws and Crabb wrote that he could not decide whether or not same-sex couples should receive the same tax benefits that married straight couples receive.
The two attorneys are responsible for prosecuting marriage evasion couples but filed a brief in March stating the couples should not be prosecuted. Crabb removed them because she wrote prosecution was unlikely.
