CHICAGO – Two county clerks from downstate Illinois received permission Tuesday to defend the state’s gay marriage ban against a lawsuit filed in Cook County by 25 gay and lesbian couples.

Effingham County Clerk Kerry Hirtzel and Tazewell County Clerk Christie Webb were allowed to intervene in the lawsuit after Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and Attorney General Lisa Madigan refused to defend it, saying the state’s 16-year-old ban on gay marriage violates the Illinois constitution.

Neither the plaintiffs nor the prosecutors objected to Hirtzel and Webb’s request. The two clerks are represented by the Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm that opposes gay marriage.