Opponents of gay marriage in Illinois argue that Illinois gay and
lesbian couples can access federal marriage benefits, provided they
marry in a state which has legalized such unions.
The argument is part of a brief filed by the Thomas More Society,
which intervened to defend the state's marriage laws after state
officials refused to do so.
Cook County Judge Sophia Hall on Tuesday heard oral arguments in
the lawsuit which involves 25 gay and lesbian couples who filed for
marriage licenses but were denied.
In a
motion filed last month, Lambda Legal and the Illinois chapter of
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asked Hall for summary
judgment in the case. Lawyers cited a Supreme Court ruling that
struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which led to the
federal government's recognition of the legal marriages of gay
couples.
“Plaintiffs who obtained civil unions by license from Illinois
county clerks, and those Plaintiffs whom Illinois deems as in civil
unions because they entered into marriages in other jurisdictions
that permit same-sex couples to marry, currently are uncertain of
receiving, if not unlikely to receive, a number of federal benefits
and protections that would be available to them and their families
absent Illinois's marriage ban now that the federal Defense of
Marriage Act (DOMA) has been struck down,” lawyers for the
plaintiffs argued in a brief filed last month.
In its filing, the
Thomas More Society argued that the DOMA case “says nothing
about whether States must allow and/or recognize same-sex marriages”
and suggested that gay couples could simply marry elsewhere to obtain
federal benefits.
“Nothing in Windsor suggests that the availability of the
federal benefits of marriage would be lost if a same-sex couple
validly married in one State moved (or returned) to a State that does
not allow or recognize such marriages. Thus, those plaintiffs who
were lawfully married in another State (or who would marry in another
State) may be eligible for all the federal benefits of marriage,
regardless of the fact that Illinois does not allow or recognize such
marriages (other than as civil unions).”