Indiana argues right to pick licenses to recognize

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — States have the right to decide which
out-of-state licenses they choose to recognize, including marriage
licenses, attorneys for Indiana argued in a brief filed with a federal
appeals court.
The filing by the Indiana attorney general’s office
Wednesday in the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago was in
response to U.S. District Judge Richard Young’s ruling last month
ordering Indiana to recognize the marriage of Amy Sandler and Niki
Quasney of Munster. The same sex-couple were married last year in
Massachusetts.
Young’s ruling applies only to Sandler and Quasney,
who is terminally ill with ovarian cancer. The couple wants their
marriage to be recognized on Quasney’s death certificate to make certain
Sandler can obtain death benefits.
Bryan Corbin, a spokesman for
Indiana’s attorney general’s office, said in a news release Thursday
there is no federal due process right to have a license issued in one
state treated as valid by government and courts in another. He said if
states were required to do so, they would have to recognize and treat as
valid one another’s law licenses, medical licenses, concealed-carry gun
permits and other licenses.
Young last month issued a preliminary
injunction extending an earlier temporary restraining order forcing the
state to list Amy Sandler as the spouse of Niki Quasney on a death
certificate after Quasney dies. Young did not rule on whether Indiana’s
gay marriage ban is unconstitutional. That ruling is expected to come
later.

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