The Wisconsin Supreme Court (Photo: Andrew Beckett)
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will not let a same sex couple bypass the lower courts, in an attempt to get justices to directly strike down the state’s ban on gay marriage.
Without comment last week, the justices told Katherine and Linda Halopka-Ivery of Milwaukee to get in line and take their case to the circuit and appellate courts first. Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley did vote to have the Supreme Court take immediate jurisdiction in the challenge, but offered no comment on their positions either.
The couple, who were married last December in California, allege that Wisconsin’s constitutional gay marriage ban from 2006 denies them the federal rights given to same-sex couples. They also say it denies them rights to due process and equal protection, after the national Defense of Marriage Act was struck down last year by the U.S. Supreme Court.
A separate lawsuit from the ACLU and several same-sex couples also challenges Wisconsin’s ban. It’s pending before Federal Judge Barbara Crabb.