United States District Judge Barbara Crabb put same-sex marriages in Wisconsin on hold a week after she struck down the state's same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional, a move that allowed more than 500 couples to wed over the last eight days, according to The Associated Press.
United States District Judge Barbara Crabb heard arguments from lawyers on Friday on how her ruling should be applied and whether it should be temporarily halted pending appeals, the AP reported. Crabb took the questions under advisement and told lawyers she "probably" would rule on the case on Friday.
County clerks around Wisconsin have issued hundreds of marriage licenses to same-sex couples since Crabb ruled last Friday that the state ban adopted in 2006 violated the U.S. Constitution, according to the AP.
Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, a Republican, has asked Crabb to stay her decision pending appeal and has said that in the meantime, marriage licenses should not have been issued and county clerks who approved them could be prosecuted, the AP reported.
Van Hollen also has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to halt gay marriages in Wisconsin until appeals are concluded, according to the AP.
Fair Wisconsin, an LGBT advocacy organization, said 51 of the state's 72 county clerks have issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples since the ruling, the AP reported.
Same-sex marriage is now legal in 19 states plus the District of Columbia, not including Wisconsin, but that number would jump sharply if federal court rulings striking down bans in several states are upheld on appeal, according to the AP.
Crabb in her ruling last Friday did not say whether county clerks were allowed to issue marriage licenses or prohibited until further rulings, leaving it up to county clerks throughout the state to decide whether to issue licenses or not, according to the AP.
