Wisconsin and Indiana separately on
Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn rulings striking
down gay marriage bans in both states.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in
Chicago last week declared the bans unconstitutional.
In his 57-page petition, Indiana
Attorney General Greg Zoeller, a Republican, asked the high court to
resolve the question of whether states can restrict marriage to
heterosexual couples.
“Our state, nation and all persons
involved need a final, unambiguous and conclusive answer from the
Supreme Court on the legal authority of states to license marriages,
and we ask the Court to take up this question through either our case
or another case at its earliest opportunity and end the uncertainty,”
he wrote.
Zoeller goes on to argue that Indiana's
definition of marriage does not “target homosexuals.”
“The statue itself makes no mention
of sexual orientation, and as the case record in this case amply
demonstrates, homosexual often do marry members of the opposite sex
in Indiana,” the brief states.
Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van
Hollen called the case challenging Wisconsin's ban “the ideal
vehicle” for the Supreme Court “to fully and finally resolve all
issues regarding this compelling nationwide 'debate between two
competing views of marriage.'”
Hollen, also a Republican, described
the Seventh Circuit's ruling as “an indecipherable amalgam of
several – at times contradictory – theories, none of which
provides a satisfactory basis to strike down Wisconsin's traditional
marriage laws.”
Federal appeals courts have also struck
down bans in Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia. Defendants in those cases
have also asked the justices for review.