Wyoming AG Defends Prop. 8 Brief

Wyoming's attorney general said he signed a legal brief challenging a federal judge's decision in the lawsuit concerning California's gay marriage ban because his state has a legal interest in the outcome of the case.

Atty. Gen. Bruce Salzburg said his state legally defines marriage as an institution only for heterosexual couples, so he wanted to ensure that Wyoming would not be forced to lift its marriage equality ban if Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling in favor of the gay and lesbian couples who filed the suit is upheld on appeal. Salzburg said that because Perry v. Schwarzenegger could reach the U.S. Supreme Court, the decision that comes from the case will be binding.

"The obligation is for the attorney general to support state statute if a good-faith argument can be made," he said, according to the Casper Star-Tribune. "In this case I believe a good-faith argument can be made."

Perry v. Schwarzenegger is currently before a federal appeals court. Wyoming is one of nine states that have signed on to a friend of the court brief challenging Walker's ruling.