 In November 2013, a federal judge ordered that a female same-sex couple be allowed to marry because long-time activist and civil servant Vernita Gray was terminally ill. On December 6, four same-sex couples filed a lawsuit, "Lee v. Orr", in federal district court seeking the right to marry without waiting for Illinois' statute to take effect.Two of the couples included a partner suffering from a serious illness.On December 10, Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman of the Northern District of Illinois ruled that any same-sex couple could marry if one of them is terminally ill. On February 21, she ruled in a lawsuit against the Cook County Clerk's Office that same-sex couples could begin marrying in that county immediately without waiting for the Illinois statute legalizing same-sex marriage to take effect on June 1.