Indiana's gay marriage ban took another hit Aug. 19 when a federal judge ruled that the state must recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
The state attorney general has said he will appeal the ruling, which came just a just a week before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to begin hearing arguments on other cases challenging the state's gay marriage ban, as well as another challenge to the ban in Wisconsin.
Bowling v. Pence, the latest case, was ruled upon by Judge Richard Young, and was the last challenge to the Indiana ban scheduled for a U.S. District Court. The case addressed whether state employee benefits or divorce protective orders could be applied to same-sex Indiana couples married outside the state. Young also wrote the June decision that initially struck down the ban and led to several hundred Indiana couples hurriedly marrying before a stay could be issued.
According to Indianapolis Star, Young's new ruling took Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to task after a previous summary judgment had been issued in his favor, based on his representation that the governor's office had no power to enforce the ban; an earlier case, Love v. Pence, was thrown out on that basis. But after Young ruled on June 25 that the marriage ban should be struck down, Pence issued a directive to state employees saying that the ban was still in effect and that Young's ruling should be disregarded.
"The court, after witnessing the Governor do what he claimed he could not do, reverses course and finds him to be a proper party to such lawsuits. The court wishes to reiterate that it finds the Governor's prior representations contradicting such authority to be, at a minimum, troubling," Young wrote in the new decision.
The Indiana and Wisconsin cases before the 7th Circuit will be heard Aug. 26 in Chicago. A marriage equality rally is scheduled at Dirksen Federal Plaza at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 25.
Indianapolis Star's article is at: indy.st/1rmcGlj .