Texas AG Paxton still trying to void state’s first same-sex marriage

“Despite the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is still trying to undo a lesbian couple’s February marriage,” according to the Texas Observer.

The case is not new. In fact Paxton has been trying to void the couple’s marriage since a Texas judge ordered the Travis County clerk to issue a marriage license to Suzanne Bryant and Sarah Goodfriend. According to an Associated Press story published by The Gayly in February, Goodfriend has ovarian cancer.

“A state district judge raised the ‘severity and uncertainty’ of her condition in granting the women permission to marry, sending the couple scrambling through a Travis County clerk building in case state Republican leaders got wind and intervened.

“Within hours, the Texas Supreme Court had blocked other gay couples from getting married under similar special exceptions — but didn't address the women's marriage, which Paxton said he considered void.

Towleroad.com reported yesterday that, “After obtaining a stay of the district judge’s ruling from the Texas Supreme Court, Paxton’s office sought a decision voiding the marriage, a request that’s still pending despite Obergefell.”

In the Texas Observer report on the continuing case, the AG’s office is quoted as saying, “’Since that case is pending, our public filings speak for themselves,’” Paxton spokeswoman Cynthia Meyer wrote to the Observer last week in response to questions about why the AG’s office hasn’t dismissed the case after the Obergefell ruling.

“Although it’s seeking to void the couple’s marriage, the AG’s office maintains in court filings that the case is about procedural issues, not a challenge to constitutional rights. For example, the AG argues that Wahlberg should have notified Paxton’s office before declaring the marriage ban unconstitutional, and that the couple failed to show ‘immediate and irreparable harm.’

“’These clear abuses of discretion would not be vindicated or absolved by a ruling from the Court or the United States Supreme Court that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right,’” the AG’s office wrote in May. “’Silence or inaction from the Court will signal to the bench, bar, and public that Texas courts may be manipulated for political gain.’”

The Observer concluded its story on the continued posturing of Attorney General Paxton, by writing, “In August, the AG’s office sought to block a lesbian widow from inheriting her deceased partner’s estate. But a Travis County probate judge ruled against the state, upholding the couple’s common-law marriage.

“Also in August, the state finally agreed to issue accurate birth and death certificates to same-sex couples after a federal district judge threatened to hold Ken Paxton in contempt. The gay widower who initiated that case, John Stone-Hoskins, died from cancer in October.”

The Gayly – December 5, 2015 @ 7 a.m.