because sexual orientation is not a suspect classification, and thus the classification created by the measure "and other laws defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman is afforded a 'strong presumption of validity.'" Nebraska argued that by "affording legal recognition and a basket of rights and benefits to married heterosexual couples," the initiative measure encouraged "procreation to take place within the socially recognized unit that is best situated for raising children." The Court agreed: "Whatever our personal views regarding this political and sociological debate, we cannot conclude that the State's justification 'lacks a rational relationship to legitimate state interests.'" Thus, the plaintiffs' "equal protection argument fails on the merits." As to the bill of attainder claim, the Court noted that bills of attainder are "legislative acts, no matter what their form, that apply either to named individuals or to easily ascertainable members of a group in such a way as to inflict punishment on them without a judicial trial." The "bill of attainder concept of punishment ... does not include 'every Act of Congress or the States that legislatively burdens some persons or groups but not all other plausible individuals.'" The harm the plaintiffs claimed "is not punishment in the functional sense because it serves the nonpunitive purpose of steering heterosexual procreation into marriage, a purpose that negates any suspicion that the supporters of [the initiative] were motivated solely by a desire to punish disadvantaged groups." Thus, this claim, too, was "without merit." As to the First Amendment issue, after criticizing Judge Bataillon for having decided it sua sponte, the Court held that Initiative Measure 416 "does not violate the First Amendment because (i) it 'does not directly and substantially interfere with [the plaintiffs'] ability to associate' in lawful pursuit of a common goal, and (ii) it seems 'exceedingly unlikely' it will prevent persons from continuing to associate." In its conclusion, the Court cited the Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Baker v. Nelson, noting that when "faced with a Fourteenth Amendment challenge to a decision by the Supreme Court of Minnesota denying a marriage license to a same-sex couple, the United States Supreme Court dismissed 'for want of a substantial federal question.' (Emphasis added.) There is good reason for this restraint." The Court held that Initiative Measure 416 "and other laws limiting the state-recognized institution of marriage to heterosexual couples are rationally related to legitimate state