Wolf v. Walker
| Wolf v. Walker | |
|---|---|
No. 14-2526
|
|
| Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit |
| Full case name | Virginia Wolf, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Scott Walker, et. al., Defendants. |
| Argued | August 26, 2014 |
| Decided | September 4, 2014 |
| Citation(s) | 766 F.3d 648 |
| Case history | |
| Prior action(s) |
District Court (W.D. Wis) June 13, 2014: Stay ordered, 2014 WL 2693963. June 6, 2014: Plaintiff same-sex couples' motion for declaratory and injunctive relief granted, 986 F. Supp. 2d 982. |
| Subsequent action(s) |
U.S. Supreme Court |
| Related action(s) |
Court of Appeals (7th Cir.) |
| Holding | |
| The district court's decision invalidating Wisconsin's same-sex marriage ban is affirmed. | |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting |
Richard Posner, David Hamilton, Ann Claire Williams. |
| Keywords | |
| Same-sex marriage | |
District Court (W.D. Wis)
June 13, 2014: Stay ordered, 2014 WL 2693963.
U.S. Supreme Court
Court of Appeals (7th Cir.)
Wolf v. Walker is a federal lawsuit filed in February 2014 that challenged Wisconsin's refusal to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, its refusal to recognize same-sex marriages established in other jurisdictions, and related statutes. In June 2014, Judge Barbara Crabb of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin ruled for the plaintiffs and in the week before she stayed her decision county clerks in 60 of the state's 72 counties issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples and some performed marriage ceremonies for them. The state appealed her decision to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed her opinion in a unanimous decision on September 4. The state requested a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court, which was denied on October 6. Same-sex marriages resumed after the Seventh Circuit issued its mandate the next day.
On February 3, 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the law firm of Mayer Brown filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on behalf of four same-sex couples, including a lesbian couple married in Minnesota in 2013. It challenged the state constitution's ban on same-sex marriage as well as Wisconsin's marriage evasion law, which makes it a crime to leave the state to establish a marriage that is not valid in Wisconsin punishable with up to nine months in jail and a fine of as much as $10,000. The suit named Governor Scott Walker, several state officials, and two county clerks as defendants.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Barbara Brandriff Crabb, who scheduled a hearing for March 27. The two county clerks named as defendants supported the plaintiffs' position. District attorneys in Milwaukee and Eau Claire counties agreed not to prosecute the plaintiffs under the marriage evasion law. Prompted by Judge Crabb, who noted that several rulings against state bans of same-sex marriage in other jurisdictions had been stayed, on March 12 the plaintiffs withdrew their request for injunctions against the state's enforcement of both its ban on same-sex marriage and the marriage evasion law, and asked the court to set an expedited schedule.
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