On July 29, 2013, a same-sex couple who was denied a marriage license brought suit in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Texas against the state of Texas. The plaintiffs represented themselves pro se, and sought a declaration that any Texas statutes and state constitutional amendments that prohibited same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. They also sought preliminary and permanent injunctions to prevent the defendants from enforcing the same-sex marriage ban.
The plaintiffs claimed that Texas' ban on same-sex marriage violated their constitutional rights under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clause. They further claimed that the ban interfered with their ability to be recognized as a family and obstructed the flow of social and administrative benefits that a different-sex married couple would enjoy.
The defendants filed a motion to consolidate this case with
Zahrn v. Perry and
De Leon v. Perry, which was denied on January 10, 2014.
Subsequently, the plaintiffs submitted a motion for summary judgment to the court (Judge Sam Sparks) on January 12, 2014. On March 12, 2014, the defendants moved to stay the case. In the interest of judicial efficiency, the motion asked that the current case not to proceed until a similar case,
De Leon v. Perry, was decided. On September 10, 2014, the court granted the defendants' motion to stay the case and dismissed all pending motions without prejudice to refile after the Fifth Circuit opinion issued their opinion.
Following the Supreme Court's decision in
Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct. 2584 (2015), (
PB-OH-0003 in the Clearinghouse), which held that the Fourteenth Amendment requires all states to grant same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages granted in other states. Additionally, the Fifth Circuit in
De Leon v. Abbott, 791 F.3d 619 (5th Cir. 2015), (
PB-TX-0004 in the Clearinghouse), applied
Obergefell to the Texas case. In light of these developments, the parties here agreed to a voluntary dismissal and the court dismissed the case on August 21, 2015.
The case is now closed.
Megan Dolan - 07/31/2014
Eva Richardson - 01/11/2019
Carol Chen - 07/05/2020
compress summary
