State of Minnesota tries to dismiss gay marriage lawsuit(MinnesotaIndependent)
A district court judge heard oral arguments from the State of Minnesota on Friday urging the court to dismiss a lawsuit by three couples who are suing for the right to marry. Solicitor General Alan Gilbert argued that because the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected same-sex marriage in 1971, that the matter is already decided and the case should be dropped. Same-sex marriage supporters have argued that cultural and political shifts since the early 1970s have made the issue once again relevant for the state’s court system.
In 1971, University of Minnesota students James Michael McConnell and Jack Baker — who was also student body president — were the first gay couple in the United States to apply for a marriage license. The couple filed their paperwork at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis and were denied a license by court clerk Gerald Nelson. The couple sued in Baker v. Nelson in Minnesota District Court, and subsequently the Minnesota Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal to the case.
“The institution of marriage as a union of man and woman, uniquely involving the procreation and rearing of children within a family, is as old as the book of Genesis,” wrote the district court in ruling against Baker in 1971. That’s the argument the state of Minnesota hopes will get the case dismissed.
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Complete article at Minnesota Independent : http://bit.ly/h3t4FK
