Subsequently, an initiative "Ehe Gleich!" was launched to force Parliament to reconsider legalising same-sex marriage. The Petitions Committee of the National Council started considering the initiative on 17 November 2015, and called on the Ministry of Justice, led by Minister Wolfgang Brandstetter (ÖVP), and the Ministry of Families, led by Minister Sophie Karmasin (ÖVP), to state their positions. The Ministry of Families claimed that this issue fell outside of its area of responsibility, while the Ministry of Justice said that extending marriage to same-sex couples is not necessary. In November 2015, the "Ehe Gleich!" initiators further filed a lawsuit challenging the same-sex marriage ban. The case was dismissed by the Vienna Administrative Court on 21 December 2015. The plaintiffs appealed to the Constitutional Court. On 21 March 2016, a second same-sex marriage case was heard in the Upper Austrian Administrative Court in Linz. On 15 April 2016, the court dismissed the case as well.