Second TX Judge Rules State Marriage Ban Unconstitutional

[Gothmog]

Source: The Belerico Project

A state district judge has ruled that Texas's 2005 voter-approved marriage discrimination amendment is unconstitutional. The ruling comes two months after a federal judge reached the same conclusion in a separate case.

The Houston Chronicle reports:

Judge Barbara Nellermoe, in a five-page ruling released Tuesday, pinpointed three portions of the Texas Family Code as unconstitutional, as well as Section 32 of the Texas Constitution. Nellermoe wrote that "in a well-reasoned opinion by Judge Orlando Garcia, the federal district court found that a state cannot do what the federal government cannot - that is, it cannot discriminate against same-sex couples."

The latest ruling comes in response to a same-sex divorce lawsuit that was filed in Bexar County in February by Allison Leona Flood Lesh and Kristi Lyn Lesh, who were married in Washington, D.C., in August 2010.....

As expected, Greg Abbott -- the state's extremely anti-gay Republican attorney general, who also happens to be running for governor -- plans to appeal the ruling.

Read more at http://www.bilerico.com/2014/04/second_tx_judge_rules_state_marriage_ban_unconstit.php#ObTqbk1I4WUaHAsL.99

Read more: http://www.bilerico.com/2014/02/breaking_federal_judge_strikes_down_texas_marriage.php

[awoke_in_2003]

1. K&R...

I hated that I actually had to vote against such a thing, but this is the babble belt.

[silvershadow]

2. K&R.

[TexasTowelie]

3. Texas appeals court halts ruling in gay-divorce case

A state appeals court Thursday halted divorce and child-custody proceedings for two San Antonio women who were legally married out of state.

The 4th Court of Appeals ruling came two days after state District Judge Barbara Hanson Nellermoe of San Antonio allowed the divorce case to continue because, she said in a five-page opinion, the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional and therefore invalid.

Attorney General Greg Abbott responding by asking the appeals court to grant an emergency stay delaying Nellermoe’s ruling, arguing that speedy action was needed “to avoid the legal chaos that would follow if the trial court’s broadly worded ruling is mistakenly interpreted as authorization for the creation or recognition of same-sex marriages in Bexar County or throughout the state.”

The San Antonio appeals court agreed Thursday afternoon, staying Nellermoe’s ruling while it considers Abbott’s request to vacate the decision as a violation of the district judge’s authority.

More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/texas-appeals-court-halts-ruling-in-gay-divorce-ca/nfhC6/ .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/107817408