In a 5-3 ruling with four opinions, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the attorney general can’t intervene in the case of a lesbian couple who divorced years ago, meaning that the women will remain divorcees.
The state argued that same-sex divorce violates the state’s same-sex marriage ban, which defines marriage as between a man and woman. One of the ex-partners, Angelique Naylor, countered that the ban was unconstitutional and argued that procedurally, the state could not intervene in a person’s divorce case. The justices discussed intervention and standing in the majority opinion rather than hashing out the constitutional arguments. It’s widely expected that the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of same-sex marriage this month.
