to rule as to whether or not same-sex couples had any rights under the Equal Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Oregon Constitution. 2005–2008 Following the passage of the constitutional amendment and the state Supreme Court's decision in Li and Kennedy, state officials began efforts to establish domestic partnerships granting virtually all of the rights and benefits of marriage. A bill was first passed in the Oregon State Senate in July 2005, but failed to pass the House of Representatives. Following the 2006 elections, similar legislation was re-introduced and passed both chambers of the Assembly. Governor Ted Kulongoski signed it into law on May 9, 2007. Since February 4, 2008, same-sex couples have had access to domestic partnerships, which guarantee almost all of the rights of marriage. 2013–2014 Recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriages (2013) On October 16, 2013, based on an opinion from the Oregon Department of Justice, the state's Chief Operating Officer, Michael Jordan, announced that Oregon would begin recognizing same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions "for the purposes of administering state programs." Oregon Same-Sex Marriage Amendment (2013–2014) In February 2013, Basic Rights Oregon formed the group Oregon United for Marriage to put an initiative on the ballot in November 2014 to provide for the legal recognition of same-sex marriages. The initiative would replace the state's constitutional amendment restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples with the right of all persons to marry without respect to gender. On July 26, 2013, the petition campaign to get the required signatures was launched. By early December 2013, the 116,284 minimum required signatures had been reached, but signature collection continued. The campaign was endorsed by the Democratic Party of Oregon, and various major businesses. The campaign gathered more than 160,000 signatures, enough to place its proposal, the Oregon Same-Sex Marriage Amendment, on the November 4, 2014 statewide ballot. Following the May 2014 U.S district court decision in Geiger v. Kitzhaber, striking down Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage, the group announced that it was "confident that the freedom to marry is secure in Oregon" and that it would not proceed with the measure. Federal lawsuit On October 15, 2013, two couples, an unmarried lesbian couple and two men already married in Canada, filed a lawsuit, Geiger v. Kitzhaber, in U.S. district court in Eugene, challenging the Oregon Constitution's ban on same-sex marriage. This made Oregon the 20th state to have a federal lawsuit challenging its ban