Oklahoma DOC same-sex marriage ruling condemned

A decision by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to stop all marriages by prisoners until the US Supreme Court rules this month on whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, has stirred controversy in the state.

DOC policy is to allow prisoners to marry on two days a year. The department has suspended that program, pending the Supreme Court decision. . According to the Corrections Department’s spokeswoman, Terri Watkins, “If same-sex marriages are ruled legal, then the (corrections) policy will need to be changed” and the department "will follow the law.” No prisoners have requested a same-sex marriage.

Don Holladay, the lead attorney on the Oklahoma same-sex marriage case, Bishop v. Oklahoma, said, “This statement justifying the Corrections Department’s decision is factually and legally incomprehensible. Same-sex marriage is legal in Oklahoma, and has been since October 6, 2014. A final federal court ruling declaring Oklahoma’s old law unconstitutional was denied review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Thousands of same-sex couples have been married in Oklahoma because such marriages are lawful.

“The two issues now before the U.S. Supreme Court -- whether a state may constitutionally ban same-sex marriage; and whether a state with such a ban can lawfully refuse to recognize same-sex marriages validly performed elsewhere -- would not, even if the bans were upheld, somehow reinstate Oklahoma’s former ban,” he continued.

LGBT advocacy group Oklahomans for Equality’s Executive Director Toby Jenkins said OkEq “ joins the plaintiffs and lawyers for the Oklahoma marriage equality lawsuit in condemning the Oklahoma Department of Corrections' decision not to allow prisoners to marry until a Supreme Court ruling later this month on whether states must sanction same-sex marriages.

“The courts have already ruled in the Oklahoma case that same-sex couples can marry, and prisoners have not surrendered that constitutional right. This action by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections is puzzling at best and wrong in any case. It is incumbent on Oklahoma officials to follow the law that has been in place since last October and to allow prisoners to marry the person of their choosing.”

Mary and Sharon Bishop-Baldwin, lead plaintiffs in the Oklahoma marriage equality lawsuit, said, “The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is thwarting the U.S. Constitution and snubbing a federal appeals court by halting all prisoner marriages until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling later this month on whether states must sanction same-sex marriages.

“That no gay or lesbian inmates have yet sought to marry a same-sex partner is irrelevant. Additionally, the Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that prison inmates have a constitutional right to marry,” the couple continued.

“As the lead plaintiffs in the case that won marriage equality in Oklahoma, we are appalled that any state officials would speak so inaccurately and carelessly. The Department of Corrections is acting unconstitutionally and should lift its marriage ban immediately,” they concluded.

On the apparent belief that a Supreme Court decision saying gay couples do not have a constitutional right to marry, and such a decision would reinstate Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban, Attorney Holladay is emphatic. “If the U.S. Supreme Court did eventually decide that a state could ban same-sex marriages, Oklahoma’s old law would not be reinstated.  It is constitutionally dead. At most, lawmakers could debate whether to attempt to pass a new law dealing with same-sex marriage.”

The Gayly – June 2, 2015 @ 10am.