The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously upheld the state’s system of domestic partner registry for same-sex couples in a decision Thursday.
Three years after Wisconsin passed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, the state legislature passed a law establishing the domestic partner registry, an institution that afforded some of the rights of marriage to registered same-sex couples, including hospital visitation, end-of-life decisions and others.
The conservative group Wisconsin Family Action sued the state, arguing the domestic partner registry law is too similar to marriage, and thus violates the state’s ban on same-sex marriages. Following U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb’s decision to strike down that ban in June, Thursday’s ruling has little immediate effect.
“There are important statutory distinctions in the way the state treats marriage and domestic partnerships and important differences in the lists of benefits and obligations that inhere in the two types of relationships,” Justice N. Patrick Crooks wrote on behalf of the majority.
State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, now busy defending the state’s marriage ban in an appeal of the June decision, refused to defend the law when the suit was first filed. After Gov. Scott Walker was elected in 2010, the state dropped the defense of the law and Fair Wisconsin took up the law’s defense.
The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals combined Wisconsin’s appeal with a similar case against the state of Indiana. Three federal judges will conduct a hearing on the two cases Aug. 26.
