Judge hears challenge to same-sex marriage ban

INDIANAPOLIS -- A judge who heard arguments Monday on a challenge of Indiana's same-sex marriage ban is not expected to issue a ruling for at least another month.\nWhatever decision Marion Superior Court Judge S.K. Reid makes is expected to be appealed.\n"I think everyone realizes this is going to be a long case," said John Krull, executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, which is challenging the law. "It doesn't matter who wins at trial, it's going to go through appeals.\nA lawsuit the ICLU filed last August on behalf of three same-sex couples argues that unions between such couples deserve full legal recognition.\nThe challenge is the first major attempt to strike down Indiana's law, which reads: "Only a female may marry a male. Only a male may marry a female."\nThe state attorney general's office, which is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed, is defending the law on behalf of groups who argue same-sex unions would undermine the institution of marriage, erode traditional values and hurt the state's ability to prohibit other forms of marriage, such as polygamy.\nThomas M. Fisher, a deputy attorney general who argued the state's case Monday, said Indiana's law was grounded in biological realities.\n"Marriage law is and always has been understood to relate to procreation and child bearing," Fisher said. "Therefore, it follows that marriage is limited to the opposite sex.\n"The justification for marriage in the first place does not extend to same-sex couples."\nKrull, of the ICLU, said Indiana's ban violates the human rights of the three couples challenging the law and others who would marry if it were overturned.\n"These six taxpaying Hoosier citizens are denied the opportunities and protections built into having their civil marriages recognized, and that is unfair discrimination based on status," Krull said.\nThe ban infringes on the couples' constitutional right to pursuit of happiness and denies them rights and protections afforded to married heterosexual couples, he said.\nAfter hearing arguments on the state's motion to dismiss the ICLU's lawsuit, Judge Reid gave the two sides 30 days to submit proposed orders. Reid indicated she would issue a ruling soon afterward, but offered no specific timeline.