INDIANAPOLIS— The Indiana Attorney General's Office is asking a federal court to recognize the marriage of two of the plaintiffs in the case that led to a judge striking down Indiana's ban of gay marriage last week.
Though Greg Zoeller's office asked for, and was granted. a stay that halted same-sex marriage throughout the state on Friday, Zoeller suggested that the court should recognize the marriage Amy Sandler and Niki Quasney, as long as such a ruling would only lift the stay for them. The Munster, Indiana, couple were married last year in Massachusetts. Quasney has terminal ovarian cancer.
“The State has extensively researched this matter and sincerely wishes it found a provision within our State’s statutes that would allow for some extraordinary relief, or humanitarian exception to the rule of law that would grant what petitioners request, Zoeller said in a statement on Tuesday. "If this Court can find an exception that would apply, this circumstance surely warrants its use.”
In May, Evansville-based U.S. District Judge Richard Young ordered that the state had to recognize the women's marriage, making it effectively the first gay marriage in Indiana.
Zoeller's statement was in response to an appeal on Sandler's and Quasney's behalf that asked that their marriage still be recognized after the stay was granted on Friday.
The Indiana Attorney General’s office on Tuesday recommended county clerks refrain from performing additional same-sex marriages even if a couple received a license prior to a federal appeals court staying a ruling that allowed the marriages in the state.
The advice from Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller follows a flurry of same-sex marriages last week after a U.S. district judge ruled on Wednesday a state law that banned same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. On Friday, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the state’s request for a stay on the ruling of Evansville-based U.S. District Court Chief Judge Richard Young.
The validity of the marriages performed within the two-and-a-half-day window is “undetermined,” Zoeller’s spokesman Bryan Corbin said, and the issue will be determined later by the court.
The state is appealing Young’s ruling, and clerks are advised to refrain from performing same-sex marriages until the appeals process is complete, Corbin said.
Young ruled the state’s law limiting marriage between one man and one woman went against the U.S. Constitution. Following his ruling, same-sex marriages began across the state.
Corbin said county clerks have the discretion to issue refunds for marriage license fees and should follow their normal practice if a refund is requested.