North Dakota's ban on same sex marriage has been challenged in federal court.
Before today, North Dakota was the last remaining state with a same sex marriage ban and no court case challenging it. Seven same sex couples from the state have filed the lawsuit in federal court, and they are represented by a Minneapolis attorney who recently filed a similar case on behalf of six same sex couples in South Dakota. Carl Tobias is a professor of law at the University of Richmond in Virginia, and says North Dakota joins about 14 other states with similar challenges on same sex marriage bans.
Tobias says these cases don't necessarily need lengthy trials and can move fairly quickly, as plaintiffs typically just ask the judge to rule on the case and the judge will write a decision. He says most cases don't take more than a couple of months to be completed. He says most of the challenges have been relatively successful, and that he is "cautiously optimistic" about the challenge on the ban in North Dakota.