Lawsuit filed to block nation’s last unchallenged same-sex marriage ban in North Dakota

BISMARCK, N.D. – Seven couples have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the ban on same-sex marriage in North Dakota, the last remaining U.S. state without a court challenge.

The clerk of the court confirmed that the lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Fargo.

It challenges both North Dakota’s constitutional ban on gay marriage and its refusal to recognize marriages of same-sex couples who legally wed in other states.

The lawsuit means cases are currently pending in all 31 states with gay marriage bans. Judges have overturned several of those bans since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of a federal law that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

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