Judge is named in marriage challenge

The federal judge who threw "intelligent design" out of public schools has been named to hear the challenge to Pennsylvania's ban on gay marriage.

Judge John E. Jones III was assigned late Tuesday to handle Whitewood v. Corbett. The case, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, pits 10 same-sex couples and one widow against Gov. Corbett and other officials, and aims to force the state to allow gay marriage.

A former chairman of the Liquor Control Board, Jones was named in 2002 to the federal bench in the state's middle district by a fellow Republican, President George W. Bush, with the support of U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.).

In 2005, Jones ruled that the Dover Area School District in central Pennsylvania could not teach the intelligent-design theory of the universe's origin. He found that the school's aim was to "impose a religious view of biological origins into the biology course" despite the Constitution's ban on establishing a state religion.

"Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge," he wrote in a 139-page opinion. "If so, they will have erred, as this is manifestly not an activist court."

The questions in Whitewood are likely to focus on whether the state has a rational basis for limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.

"Anybody who is familiar with the [Dover] case understands that I gave both sides ample opportunity to present their cases, and I'll certainly do that in this case as well," Jones said Wednesday.