Justice

Pennsylvania AG Won't Defend Lawsuit To Overturn Marriage Ban

By Brody Levesque | HARRISBURG -- Multiple sources confirmed Wednesday that Pennsylvania's Attorney General Kathleen Kane will announce Thursday that her office will not defend the state in a federal lawsuit that challenges its ban on same-sex marriage.

The Philadelphia Daily News first broke the story that Kane, who is named along with the state's Republican Governor Tom Corbett as a defendant in the suit, plans to make the announcement at the National Constitution Center. 

The lawsuit, Whitewood v. Corbett, filed Tuesday in federal court in Harrisburg by the American Civil Liberties Union, seeks to make Pennsylvania the 14th state to allow same-sex marriage by asking a federal judge to prevent state officials from stopping gay couples from getting married.

Lawyers in the case believe it is ultimately bound for the U.S. Supreme Court, probably along with similar cases that are cropping up in other states, and could force the high court to rule on the core question of whether it is unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

Pennsylvania is the sole state in the Northeast without same-sex marriage or a civil-union statute.

This is a developing story.