ACLU: Judge shouldn't have dismissed same-sex suit

HELENA — A Montana judge abdicated his responsibility when he dismissed a lawsuit by six gay couples seeking the same legal benefits as married couples, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday in an appeal to the state's highest court.

The six couples, barred from marrying under the state's voter-approved constitutional definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, aren't asking for the right to wed. Instead, they say they want to be able to make decisions like married couples about their families' health care, finances, inheritance and burials.

They say the state is unconstituti...