Litigation

TX Court: No Divorces for Gay Couples

By Peter Hardin

A Texas appeals court has tossed out a lower court’s ruling that two men who were married in Massachusetts, and who moved to Texas, could get divorced there.

The 5th District Court of Appeals said state District Judge Tena Callahan (see Gavel Grab) had incorrectly ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriages violated the equal protection right under the 14th Amendment. In addition, Texas district courts do not have the right to hear a same-sex marriage divorce case, the appeals court said.

“A person does not and cannot seek a divorce without simultaneously asserting the existence and validity of a lawful marriage,” Justice Kerry P. Fitzgerald wrote on behalf of three Republican appeals court justices, according to an Associated Press article.

“Texas law, as embodied in our constitution and statutes, requires that a valid marriage must be a union of one man and one woman, and only when a union comprises one man and one woman can there be a divorce under Texas law.”

Courts in some states where same-sex marriage is barred have rejected granting divorces for same-sex couples who were married elsewhere, and courts in some other states have permitted the divorces.

Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott had appealed the lower court ruling. He said about the appeals court decision, “Because the Constitution and laws of the state of Texas define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, the court correctly ruled that Texas courts do not have authority to grant a same-sex divorce,” the Dallas Morning News reported.

“It’s deeply disappointing to see courts deny same-sex couples equal treatment under the law,” said Jennifer Pizer, a lawyer for Lambda Legal.

Full post as published by The Gavel on September 01, 2010 (boomark / email).