CHICAGO, Feb. 13, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today, Judge Sophia Hall denied a motion to stay proceedings in the same-sex marriage cases pending in the Cook County Circuit Court and ordered briefing on the pending motion to dismiss the case. The motion to stay urged that the United States Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage, expected in June, will necessarily impact any decision by the Illinois circuit court. The motion to stay was brought on behalf of the five county clerks who have intervened to defend the state's law defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman. The circuit court also imposed a timetable for the plaintiffs, 25 same-sex couples, to answer the county clerks' motion to dismiss, which was filed in July, 2012.

 

"We are pleased that the court ordered briefing on our motion to dismiss, after eight months of delay by the plaintiffs," said Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, which is representing the county clerks. "We expect the motion to dismiss will be heard sometime in June or July, likely after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the two same-sex marriage cases before it. We fully expect the motion to dismiss will be granted and that we will prevail."

 

Judge Hall ordered the plaintiffs to respond to the motion to dismiss by March 29, 2013 and allowed the intervening clerks a reply in support of their motion to dismiss by May 16, 2013. A status hearing on the motion to dismiss will be held June 6, 2013 at 9:30am in Cook County Circuit Court, Room 2301.

 

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