ACLU Withdraws Request For Injunction Against Gay Marriage Ban

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union have withdrawn their request for a federal judge to temporarily stop enforcement of Wisconsin’s ban on gay marriage.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb said last week that she would deny the injunction just as other federal courts have recently done in suits challenging marriage amendments in other states.

Attorney Larry Dupuis of the Wisconsin ACLU said a decision by district attorneys in Milwaukee and Eau Claire makes it less urgent to halt the law immediately. Those D.A.s have promised not to use the state’s marriage evasion law to prosecute two of the couples challenging the marriage ban, who crossed the border to get married in Minnesota.

“There are still other things about this (for which) we would like to get a quick resolution, including all the benefits that go along with marriage,” said Dupuis.

Dupuis says the ACLU will now ask for a summary judgment in the hope that the challenge to the marriage ban can reach a federal appeals court in Chicago as soon as possible. Crabb has said she will expedite the case and reach a decision as early as she can.