GREENSBORO - U.S. District Judge William Osteen today denied a request from North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger to allow oral arguments in two American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuits challenging North Carolina’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples. Judge Osteen also asked current parties in the lawsuit to provide further guidance on whether to allow Tillis and Berger to intervene in the case by 3 p.m. on Monday, October 13.
ACLU of North Carolina Legal Director Chris Brook released the following statement:
“The movement in these cases is encouraging, but the freedom to marry cannot come to North Carolina soon enough. Judge Osteen has indicated he needs no further briefing on the constitutionality of North Carolina’s marriage ban, and we are hopeful that a ruling striking down this discriminatory law will come in a matter of days. We are working to reply to all of Judge Osteen’s requests as soon as possible.”
Background:
The ACLU filed the first legal challenge to North Carolina’s marriage ban in June 2013 when it amended a 2012 lawsuit seeking second parent adoption rights for six families headed by same-sex couples. The adoption lawsuit, Fisher-Borne, et al. v. Smith, was originally filed in June 2012, just weeks after passage of the state’s marriage ban, known as Amendment One, which the ACLU lobbied and campaigned against. In April 2014, the ACLU filed a second lawsuit, Gerber and Berlin, et al. v. Smith, challenging North Carolina’s marriage ban on behalf of three married same-sex couples, one member of which has a serious medical condition.
