Trial challenging Pennsylvania’s gay-marriage ban

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A federal judge in Harrisburg says he’ll schedule a June trial for a lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s gay-marriage ban.

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III told lawyers in the case Nov. 22 that he would set a trial date and a timetable for pre-trial discovery and depositions soon.

Lawyers for the state sought an August trial, but Jones said the delay was unnecessary.

Pennsylvania is the only northeastern state that bars same-sex marriage. Nationally, Illinois this week joined 15 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing it.

The federal lawsuit was the first of at least six state and federal lawsuits that challenge aspects of the 17-year-old Pennsylvania law. Civil rights lawyers filed it on behalf of plaintiffs who include a widow, 11 couples and one couple’s two teenage daughters.

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