BREAKING: Texas Supreme Court Rejects Ruling That Found Same-Sex Couples Entitled to Same Benefits as Opposite-Sex Couples

Texas Supreme Court Allows Politics to Decide Law

In a stunning decision influenced by local politics the Texas Supreme Court has just rejected a lower court’s ruling that found same-sex couples are entitled to the same benefits as different-sex couples. The high court sent the case back to the lower court to review.

“The case was part of Texas Republicans’ ongoing fight against the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide and led to the enactment of benefits policies for married same-sex couples,” the Texas Tribune reports.

“At the center of the Houston case is whether that ruling — known as Obergefell v. Hodges — requires city and other governmental agencies to extend those taxpayer-subsidized benefits to same-sex spouses of government employees. Following that ruling, public employers in Texas, including state agencies and public universities — quickly extended such benefits.”

But in an attempt to re-litigate the high court’s decision, two taxpayers — represented by same-sex marriage opponents — are suing Houston over its policy.

They’ve argued that the interpretation of Obergefell is too broad and that the right to marry does not “entail any particular package of tax benefits, employee fringe benefits or testimonial privileges.”

The Texas Supreme Court may have sent the case back to the lower courts, but in its ruling it makes clear its real opinion.

“In Obergefell, the Supreme Court acknowledged that our historical view of marriage has long been ‘based on the understanding that marriage is a union between two persons of the opposite sex,'”  Justice Jeffrey S. Boyd writes in Friday’s Texas Supreme Court opinion. 

“It concluded, however, that this ‘history is the beginning of these cases,’ and it rejected the idea that it ‘should be the end as well,'” he says.

“Obergefell is not the end either. Already, the Supreme Court has taken one opportunity to address Obergefell’s impact on an issue it did not address in Obergefell, and there will undoubtedly be others,” Boyd writes, referring to the just-decided Arkansas case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples have the right to have both their names opn their children’s birth certificates.

Boyd adds that the defendent and plaintiff in the Texas case “must now assist the courts in fully exploring Obergefell’s reach and ramifications, and are entitled to the opportunity to do so.”

It is without question a cop-out. The law is clear, and challenges to Obergefell have also been clear. Fewderal courts have always ruled since Obergefell that married same-sex couples must be treated exactly like different-sex couples. There is no grey here.

UPDATE: Texas Supreme Court Admits It Considered Public Opinion on Postcards to Reject Ruling Gay Couples Must Receive Equal Benefits

This is a breaking news and developing story. Details may change. This story will be updated, and NCRM will likely publish follow-up stories on this news. Stay tuned and refresh for updates.

To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page.

Image by eatswords via Flickr and a CC license