Hearings resumed Oct. 8 in the lawsuit brought against the county clerk's office last year on behalf of same-sex Cook County couples wishing to marry.
The proceedings, presided over by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Sophia Hall, were marked by frustrations on both sides when trying to agree on a timeline for the case.
On Oct. 4, Lambda Legal and ACLU Illinois, representing the plaintiffs, filed a motion to show cause, in order to accelerate the discovery process. But Special State's Attorney Paul Benjamin Linton said the defendants were not being given enough time.
"They want us to have experts by next week," Linton said. "We don't have any experts yet. This is a steamrolling operation as far as we're concerned."
John Knight, dir. of ACLU Illinois LGBT and AIDS Project, told Hall that the plaintiffs had hoped to complete discovery by the end of the year; the defendants wanted to go until May.
Hall set the date of the next hearing for Nov. 14, when oral arguments on the motion to show cause will be heard.
Darby vs. Orr and Lazarro vs. Orr were filed against Cook County Clerk David Orr in mid-2012. Orr, who is in favor of marriage equality, has refused to defend the state's marriage ban, so the Thomas More Society, a conservative law firm, is representing five opposing county clerks in the matter.
On Sept. 27, Judge Hall, who is openly lesbian, dismissed three of the original five complaints and left in place complaints that the couples were being denied equal protections and due process.