After hearing nearly two hours of oral arguments on Tuesday, Cook
County Circuit Judge Sophia Hall said that she'll rule on a case
challenging Illinois' gay marriage ban on September 27.
The case involves 25 gay and lesbian couples who requested
marriage licenses but were denied.
The state currently recognizes gay couples with civil unions. A
marriage bill stalled in the House after passage in the Senate
earlier this year. The measure's House sponsor has said that he will
call the measure for a vote in November.
The plaintiffs are represented by Lambda Legal and the Illinois
chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), whose lawyers
asked Judge Hall for summary judgment in the case soon after the
Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
(Related: Illinois
gay marriage opponents argue gay couples should marry elsewhere.)
The socially conservative Thomas More Society intervened to defend
the state's marriage laws after state officials refused to do so.
“Today, the other side argued that because any two people can
raise a child as well as that child's own married biological parents,
marriage must be redefined to include any two people,” Peter Breen,
vice president & senior counsel at Thomas More Society, said in a
written statement following oral arguments. “Illinois's definition
of marriage as between one man and one woman is constitutionally
grounded in our shared cultural experience, common sense, and the
great weight of law. We are confident in the strength of our legal
arguments that there is nothing unconstitutional about traditional
marriage.”