Oklahoma couple suing for marriage equality
Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group, is defending the Tulsa County Clerk’s Office against a lawsuit involving marriage equality because a federal appeals court ruled the governor and attorney general have no standing.
Two lesbian couples from Oklahoma, including one married in California, challenged the state’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional.
They believe the Defense of Marriage Act ruling bolsters their case. The case was filed in federal court in Tulsa in 2004 where it has been stalled. However, they are challenging the section of DOMA that still stands, allowing one state to refuse to recognize a marriage performed in another state.
Now that the DOMA ruling has been issued, attorneys for the couples are urging U.S. District Judge Terence Kern to rule in the case.
A number of cases are working their way through the courts. According to the blog Hunter of Justice, a Nevada and a Hawaii case are farthest along. In addition to the Oklahoma case, a Michigan and a North Carolina challenge to marriage bans are in federal courts. New cases have been filed in Virginia and Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey and New Mexico state courts.
And an Ohio judge ruled in July that the state must recognize a recent Maryland marriage on a death certificate.
A story on the Oklahoma couple on Oklahoma News 9:
News9.com – Oklahoma City, OK – News, Weather, Video and Sports |
