TX judge rules TX ban on same sex marriage violates the Constitution

[cali]

Judge calls Texas' gay-marriage ban into question

12:00 AM CDT on Friday, October 2, 2009

By ROY APPLETON / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]

In a first for Texas, a judge ruled Thursday that two men married in another state can divorce here and that the state's ban on gay marriage violates the U.S. Constitution.

Both a voter-approved state constitutional amendment and the Texas Family Code prohibit same-sex marriages or civil unions.

Although the case is far from settled, and the state's constitutional ban on gay marriage is a long way from being thrown out, Dallas state District Judge Tena Callahan's ruling says the state prohibition of same-sex marriage violates the federal constitutional right to equal protection.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott had intervened in the two men's divorce case, arguing that because a gay marriage isn't recognized in Texas, a Texas court can't dissolve one through divorce.

Callahan, a Democrat, denied the attorney general's intervention and said her court "has jurisdiction to hear a suit for divorce filed by persons legally married in another jurisdiction."

"This is huge news. We're ecstatic," said Dallas attorney Peter Schulte, who represents the man who filed the divorce. The man, identified in court documents as J.B., asked that he and his former partner not be identified.

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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-gaydivorce_02met.ART.State.Edition2.4bcd80d.html

[Richardo]

1. How ironic if a divorce proceeding were to ultimately lead to marriage equality in Texas.

K&R

[excess_3]

2. means nothing, unless ruling comes from the SSC ..nt

[Divine Discontent]

3. we know how that will go (most likely) but it's things like this that stir debate that changes

views, over time. It will all fall (anti-Gay ordinances and the like) someday...