Federal Trial on Pa. Same-Sex Marriage Law Set For June 2014
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- A federal judge in Harrisburg says a trial will be held in the middle of next year in a lawsuit seeking to overturn Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage.
Judge John Jones III says the same-sex marriage case will go to trial in June in a federal courtroom serving the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Jones denied a request by lawyers for the Corbett administration who had wanted the trial date pushed to August.
It was just a week ago that the same judge threw out motions to dismiss the case, saying in his opinion that the legal system's view of sex and sexual identity cases has undergone a "sea change" over the past four decades.
Pennsylvania's law limiting marriage to a man and a woman has now spawned a half-dozen legal challenges, including one resulting from the Montgomery County register of wills' decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is reviewing a lower court's ban on that practice.
