Brief filed in same-sex marriage case

DES MOINES (AP) -- The Polk County Attorney's Office says in new documents that a lawsuit challenging the state's same-sex marriage ban is trying to change the way public policy is made.

In its reply brief filed Tuesday, the County Attorney's Office said: "Plaintiffs seek to have this court establish that the courts and not the Legislature should make public policy for the state of Iowa by redefining marriage to be something totally different from what it has ever been."

Lambda Legal, a New York-based gay rights organization, filed the lawsuit in 2005 on behalf of six gay and lesbian couples from Iowa who were denied marriage licenses, as well as three of the couples' children. It names former Polk County Recorder and Registrar Timothy Brien.

The lawsuit has led to a series of filings in which the County Attorney's Office and Lambda Legal have answered one another's legal arguments.

The most recent Polk County brief criticizes Lambda Legal's analogy between gays seeking the right to marry and Iowa's judicial history of guaranteeing rights for black Americans. The brief said other courts have rejected similar arguments.

"This is because the histories of black Americans simply are not remotely the same as plaintiffs'," the brief said. "The constitutions of the United States and the state of Iowa do not mention homosexuality."

The brief also argues that the court erred in rejecting some of the county's witnesses.

The lawsuit prompted a ruling last August by Polk County District Court Judge Robert Hanson, who said the state law allowing marriage only between a man and a woman violates the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection.

The next day, Hanson stayed the decision, and the case is now before the Iowa Supreme Court.

Oral arguments will be scheduled by the Iowa Supreme Court in coming months, but a decision this year is unlikely.

Challengers of the same-sex marriage ban contend it violates same-sex couples' rights. Opponents said the issue should be left up to the Legislature to decide -- not the courts.