Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan [pictured] and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez have refused to defend the 16-year-old ban on same-sex marriage – saying it violates the state constitution’s equal protection clause. The current law defines marriage as between a man and a woman. “I took an oath when I was sworn in to defend the constitution of the state of Illinois and I believe that’s what I’m doing,” Alvarez said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I’m not going to defend something I believe is in violation of the constitution.”<\/p>\n
The Obama administration last year announced it would not defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act, though the U.S. House of Representatives’ Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group took up the defense. A federal appeals court in California recently declined to reconsider its decision to strike down that state’s ban on gay marriage, a case that could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Currently, the District of Columbia and seven states – Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont – have legalized marriage equality. Voters in Washington state will decide whether to overturn a new law legalizing gay marriage, which was blocked from taking effect after opponents got enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot.<\/p>\n
[via AP<\/a>]<\/p>\n
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan [pictured] and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez have refused to defend the 16-year-old ban<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[195,21],"tags":[1971,1027,366],"yoast_head":"\n