A federal judge on Tuesday ordered
Indiana officials to recognize the out-of-state marriages of gay and
lesbian couples.
U.S. District Judge Richard Young
declared the state's ban on recognizing such unions invalid but
stayed his ruling pending appeal.
In June, Young struck down Indiana's
ban in its entirety without a stay, which led to a rush of gay and
lesbian couples to marry at county clerk offices. The Seventh
Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago put a hold on Young's order
pending an appeal without explanation. It will hear arguments in the
case on Tuesday.
Tuesday's recognition case, Bowling
v. Pence, was the remaining case of five left undecided at the
district court level.
Young had earlier dismissed Republican
Governor Mike Pence as a defendant in a separate case. But this
time, he reversed course and chided Pence in the process.
In July, Pence issued a memo to
executive branch offices stating that the state's restrictive
marriage ban remained in effect and to ignore Young's ruling.
Pence had argued that he should be
removed from the cases because as governor he does not have any
authority to enforce the ban.
Young said Tuesday that Pence's memo
“clearly contradicts his prior representations to the court.”
“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.