May 25, 2015 · Five lawsuits ruled in favor of the plaintiffs left the state of Indiana to foot the bill for their legal costs.
The state of Indiana had to pay more than $1.4 million in fees to plaintiffs' attorneys in its unsuccessful attempt to maintain a ban on same-sex marriages, the attorney general's office says. ... Gay marriage challenges cost Indiana $1.4M in attorney fees. May 26, 2015 | …
May 26, 2015 · INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – The Indiana attorney general's office says the state had to pay more than $1.4 million in fees to plaintiffs' attorneys in its unsuccessful attempt to maintain its ban on same-sex marriages. Same-sex marriage became legal in Indiana in October when the U.S. Supreme Court decided to let stand two federal court rulings […]
May 25, 2015 · The Indiana attorney general's office says the state had to pay more than $1.4 million in fees to plaintiffs' attorneys in its unsuccessful attempt …
On September 9, 2014, Wisconsin (joint by Indiana) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold their respective bans on same-sex marriage. On September 15, the Seventh Circuit granted a motion for a stay of ruling, to be in effect until the case is resolved at the Supreme Court.
Love v. Pence was filed on March 7, 2014. Judge Young dismissed Love v. Pence for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction on June 25, 2014, because the only named defendant was Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who cannot, he wrote, "issue executive decrees telling other elected officials how to do their jobs when it comes to laws affecting marriage." Judge Young reinstated that part of the suit concerned with the recognition of marriages from other jurisdictions on September 16, citing the Governor's memos directing state officials how to respond to other court decisions on the issue of same-sex marriage.
A lawsuit brought in 2002 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of 3 same-sex couples seeking marriage rights and challenging a 1986 law that limited marriages to opposite-sex couples failed in the Marion County Superior Court in May 2003. The judge ruled that restricting marriage to different-sex couples "promotes the state's interest in encouraging procreation to occur in a context where both biological parents are present to raise the child." Two of the couples had formed civil unions in Vermont in 2000. The ruling was upheld by the Indiana Court of Appeals on January 20, 2005. After the ruling by the Court of Appeals in January 2005, when the third couple had formed a Vermont civil union and one couple had married in Canada as well, the plaintiffs decided not to appeal to the state Supreme Court to avoid a negative outcome there that might influence other state courts.
The plaintiffs in Bowling v. Pence raised only the question of Indiana's recognition of same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions, not the state's refusal to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. One plaintiff couple was married in Iowa in 2011. A third plaintiff sought to dissolve her marriage established elsewhere. Judge Young issued his ruling in Bowling v. Pence on August 19, repeating the logic of his earlier decision in finding that the state's refusal to recognize same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. Though he had previously dismissed Love v. Pence after accepting the arguments of Governor Pence that the Governor of Indiana lacks authority over the enforcement of the state's ban, Young reversed himself, citing actions Pence took following the decision to Baskin. Young noted that the Governor, contrary to his earlier claims, had issued memos to state agencies instructing them to disregard the July 25 decision in Baskin. Pence had written on July 7 that Indiana's ban "is in full force and effect and executive branch agencies are to execute their functions as though the U.S. District Court Order of June 25, 2014 had not been issued." In his Bowling decision, Young wrote: "The memoranda issued by the Governor clearly contradict his prior representations to the court". He called the Governor's earlier statements a "bold misrepresentation". He wrote that his acceptance of Pence as defendant "is not based on the Governor's general duty to enforce the laws. It is based on his specific ability to command the executive branch regarding the law." He commented: "The court, after witnessing the Governor do what he claimed he could not do, reverses course and finds him to be a proper party to such lawsuits. The court wishes to reiterate that it finds the Governor's prior representations contradicting such authority to be, at a minimum, troubling." Young stayed enforcement of his decision and the state announced plans to appeal on August 21.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in the U.S. state of Indiana since October 6, 2014. The state had previously restricted marriage to different-sex couples by statute in 1986. By legislation passed in 1997, it denied recognition to same-sex relationships established in other jurisdictions.