Hawaii Circuit Court Judge Karl Sakamoto heard a legal challenge to the marriage bill filed by Representative Bob McDermott, who contended that the 1998 constitutional amendment prohibited the Legislature from allowing same-sex marriage. The lawsuit sought to prevent any government official from issuing a marriage license until the question of constitutionality was decided. On November 14, Judge Sakamoto ruled that the constitutional amendment in question did not force the Legislature to define marriage as between one man and one woman, and that it only gave the Hawaii State Legislature the power to reserve marriage for opposite-sex couples if it chose to do so, and that "after all the legal complexity of the court's analysis, the court will conclude that same-sex marriage in Hawaii is legal." The court granted the state's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, "McDermott v. Abercrombie", on January 29, 2014.