Marriage in Illinois

May happen quicker than I thought. It seems that, while the legislature is busily trying to avoid the issue, the citizens have taken matters into their own hands.

Two recent lawsuits against Cook County Clerk David Orr claim that not issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the Illinois Constitution.

The state’s attorney’s response, filed today, agrees with that claim.

“We believe the plaintiffs are correct in their assertion that the Illinois Constitution upholds marriage equality for same sex couples just as it does for opposite sex couples,” spokeswoman Sally Daly said in an email.

It gets better:

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) will be joining Lambda Legal and the ACLU in arguing that Illinois's civil unions law does not meet the state's constitutional guarantees of equal protection, raising the question of what the Cook County clerk of courts -- the named defendant -- will do in its response to the lawsuits.

The Cook County Clerk -- David Orr -- has already made his support of marriage equality well-known, and as you can see from the first quote above, the County is not going to contest the suit. (Governor Pat Quinn is also in support of marriage equality.)

But never fear, oh ye stalwarts of discrimination: there's always some bigot ready to ride to the rescue:

Peter Breen, executive director of the Thomas More Society, a private bar association that represents the Catholic Church, said the group "will be seeking relief from the court," though he didn't say exactly what that would be. Some experts have suggested the society could seek the right to defend the ban, though that's considered a long shot.

"You can't just say you feel it's unconstitutional," said Breen. "This ... puts people of the state of Illinois in a difficult place because their elected representatives are not defending their interests. If there is no argument or disagreement, then you'd really have a hollow judgment."

For starters, he's going to have a hell of a time establishing standing. And if he manages to come up with someone to represent -- and I'd love to see how he pulls that off, since the defendant, Orr, has no intention of contesting the suit -- what's he going to use for an argument?

As for Breen's comment -- well, I would say that our elected representatives -- the AG and State's Attorney -- are certainly representing our interests. Oh, and Mr. Breen? When you have no argument or disagreement, that's generally known as "consensus."

Good luck.