Pro-family group may challenge legal benefits for same-sex couples

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A pro-family group says it might start a new challenge to Wisconsin’s legal benefits for same-sex couples.

The State Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it would not be the first to consider the case. The legal benefits took effect in early August.

And the Wisconsin Family Action group was hoping to strike them down right away by having the Supreme Court review the case first, instead of dragging it through the lower courts.

The justices did not say why they wouldn’t take the case.

But Family Action lawyers Michael Dean and Richard Esenberg say it probably has nothing to do with the merits.

They admitted the Supreme Court rarely takes cases directly, and the group might file a new lawsuit at the circuit court level. The domestic partner benefits were approved in the new state budget.

They provide about one-fifth of the legal benefits that married couples receive – including end-of-life decisions, and the inheriting of each partner’s property.

The Family Action group says the new benefits violate the state’s constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions.

But the group Fair Wisconsin said the constitution does not prevent laws that offer “basic decency and security” for couples.

Almost 1,200 same-sex couples have signed up for the domestic partner registry.

Tags: same sex couples, legal benefits, profamily group, wisconsin