Pa. Couple Sued Over Marriage Challenge

May 16, 2004

A gay couple who were turned down for a marriage license in Bucks County are now being sued by a group of conservative lawmakers.

Robert Seneca and Stephen Stahl were rejected when they applied for the license at the Bucks County Courthouse in New Hope last March. The couple is preparing a lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania's so-called Defense of Marriage law which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The suit filed Friday by 11 Republican and one Democratic member of the state legislature seeks to make a preemptive strike by getting a court to affirm the gay marriage ban.

We want to establish the constitutionality of the law so that the register of wills does not have to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, Leonard G. Brown III, the attorney who represents the lawmakers, told the Allentown Morning Call.

Brown said he wants an injunction preventing the couple from challenging the state's DOMA. Seneca and Stahl are named as defendants in the suit.

Brown said that the legislators fear that if Seneca and Stahl get to court first and are successful in getting a Bucks County judge to grant them a marriage license for Seneca and Stahl without a public hearing, opponents of same-sex marriage would have to file an appeal to the state Superior Court that could take months before it is litigated. In the meantime, Seneca and Stahl would remain legally married.

No hearing has been set, and Brown said he would expect a judge to first ask for legal briefs in the case.

Stahl reacted angrily to the suit. This is absurd, he told the Morning Call. They have a lot of fear. They can sue us, but it's OK. Things will change.

Stahl said he and Seneca haven't taken steps to challenge the Pennsylvania law. He said they wanted to wait until after Monday, when same-sex unions in Massachusetts become legal and see first if those marriages stand up to court tests.