In an important but narrow ruling, a U.S. district court judge in Nashville issued a preliminary injunction late Friday afternoon, barring the state of Tennessee from denying recognition of marriage licenses obtained by three same-sex couples in other states.
The order applies only to these three couples and only while their lawsuit challenging the state's refusal to recognize marriage licenses obtained by same-sex couples else is pending, said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. But it represents yet another important victory for marriage equality, and another advance in a southern state.
NCLR and long-time lesbian legal activist Abby Rubenfeld filed the lawsuit, Tanco v. Tennessee, on behalf of four couples last October. (One couple subsequently dropped out of the lawsuit.) It challenges both the state constitutional language and statutory laws that ban recognition of the marriages of same-sex couples. Like so many other lawsuits filed in more than two dozen states around the country, the Tennessee lawsuit argues that the bans violate the couples' rights to due process and equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.
Judge Aleta Trauger (a Clinton appointee) said in the order she issued Friday that "all signs indicate that, in the eyes of the United States Constitution, the plaintiffs' marriages will be placed on an equal footing with those of heterosexual couples and that proscriptions against same-sex marriage will soon become a footnote in the annals of American history."
Trauger also noted that other pending lawsuits in other states may well determine the ultimate outcome of the Tanco challenge.
NCLR's Minter pointed out that the lawsuit which just concluded a two-week trial in Detroit, for instance, could be appealed to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals relatively soon and potentially deciding the law for other Sixth Circuit states, such as Tennessee.
The lead plaintiffs, Drs. Valeria Tanco and Sophy Jesty are both professors of veterinary medicine who married in 2011, while living in New York. Other plaintiffs include Sergeant First Class Ijpe DeKoe and Thomas Kostura married while living in New York, and John Espejo and Matthew Mansell, who married in California.
Judge Trauger's ordered noted that each couple, "When they interact with Tennessee officials or fill out official forms to identify themselves as married, they brace themselves for degrading experiences that often occur because of Tennessee's refusal to recognize their marriages."
The Tennessean newspaper reported Friday evening that the state's attorney general is expected to defend the state's ban; no word yet on whether the state will attempt to challenge Trauger's very limited order.
© 2014 Keen News Service. All rights reserved.
From news releases
WASHINGTON Today U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger ordered Tennessee state officials to recognize the out-of-state marriages of three same-sex couples during consideration of their lawsuit challenging Tennessee's constitutional amendment banning their recognition. Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) President Chad Griffin issued the following statement:
"Yet another federal judge has recognized that bans on marriage equality don't hold up to even basic constitutional scrutiny. Though today's ruling comes from Tennessee, it joins others issued recently in Virginia, Kentucky, Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma and Utah, and in this case the judge boldly noted that it won't be long before each and every remaining ban on marriage equality becomes a footnote in history. That day isn't here yet, but today Tennessee brought us one step closer to that goal."
Currently 29 states have constitutional amendments restricting marriage to one man and one woman. Same-sex couples can legally marry in 17 states and Washington, DC.
-HRC
Tennessee Federal Judge Rules in Favor of Same-Sex Couples' Marriages
From a Freedom to Marry press release
New York Today a federal judge in Tennessee ruled that state officials must respect the marriages of three same-sex couples whose lawsuit challenges the state's marriage ban. Tennessee is the second Southern state where a federal judge has ruled in favor of respect for out-of-state marriages for same-sex couples, following Kentucky.
Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, released the following statement:
"This is the eighth judge in recent months to rule on a challenge to marriage discrimination, with now eight out of eight ruling that under our Constitution, across our entire country, marriage discrimination should and must end. The judge's powerful words and the fact that today's ruling comes out of Tennessee make clear that all of America is ready for the freedom to marry, and it is time for appellate judges and the Supreme Court to do right by all families and bedrock principles of liberty and equality under the law."
Last month, Freedom to Marry launched a $1 million campaign to grow majority support for marriage in the South called Southerners for the Freedom to Marry. A recent poll from the Washington Post/ABC News shows that support for marriage in the South is at 50% support, 42% opposed.
Freedom to Marry is the campaign to win marriage nationwide. We are pursuing our Roadmap to Victory by working to win the freedom to marry in more states, grow the national majority for marriage, and end federal marriage discrimination. We partner with individuals and organizations across the country to end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage and the protections, responsibilities, and commitment that marriage brings.
From an NCLR news release
Federal Court Orders Tennessee to Recognize Marriages of Same-Sex Couples While Their Legal Challenge Proceeds
(Nashville, TN, March 14, 2014)Today, a federal district court in Nashville, Tennessee ruled that Tennessee officials must recognize the marriages of three same-sex couples who moved to Tennessee after legally marrying in other states. The ruling provides immediate protection for the couples while the suit they filed in October challenging Tennessee's failure to recognize same-sex couples' marriages remains pending. The court found that Tennessee's refusal to recognize the couples' valid marriages fails to protect them and likely violates the United States Constitution.
Tennessee now joins several other statesincluding Utah, Oklahoma, Ohio, Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky, and Texasin which a federal court has ruled that states must allow same-sex couples to marry or recognize the marriages of couples who married in other states since the Supreme Court's ruling last June requiring the federal government to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples. Every federal court to have considered such a challenge since the Supreme Court's landmark decision in United States v. Windsor has ruled in favor of the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.
In her ruling today, U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger took note of these earlier decisions, writing: "In light of this rising tide of persuasive post-Windsor federal caselaw, it is no leap to conclude that the plaintiffs here are likely to succeed in their challenge to Tennessee's Anti-Recognition Laws."
The couples filed a federal lawsuit on October 21, 2013 alleging that Tennessee's failure to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples violates the federal Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and due process and the constitutionally protected right to travel between and move to other states. The couples filed a motion in November 2013 to seek immediate protection while their case proceeds. In granting that motion today, Judge Trauger held that Tennessee's laws prohibiting the state from acknowledging the equal dignity of the married couples' relationships and families likely would cause them significant and irreparable harm, including because one of the couples is expecting a baby within days and urgently needs the legal protection and security of having both partners recognized as legal parents, as other married couples in Tennessee are recognized.
The couples are Dr. Valeria Tanco and Dr. Sophy Jesty of Knoxville; Army Reserve Sergeant First Class Ijpe DeKoe and Thom Kostura of Memphis; and Matthew Mansell and Johno Espejo of Franklin.
The couples are represented by attorneys Abby R. Rubenfeld of Nashville, William Harbison, Scott Hickman, Phil Cramer, and John Farringer of the law firm of Sherrard & Roe in Nashville, Maureen T. Holland of Memphis, Regina Lambert of Knoxville, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
Dr. Jesty said: "We are overjoyed with the court's ruling. As a result of this order, our daughter will never know a time when her bonds with her loving parents were not protected or the state saw her family as less worthy than other families. We look forward to the resolution of this case so that all married same-sex couples in Tennessee can have the protections that we were granted today."
Sgt. DeKoe said: "Having had the privilege to serve my country both at home and abroad in defense of the values this country treasures, I am proud that Thom and I will finally be treated with the same dignity Tennessee affords other married couples. Because of this ruling, we can rest assured that our relationship will be respected in all aspects of our lives not only by our friends and neighbors and the federal government, but also by our home state of Tennessee."
Added attorney Rubenfeld: "This is a very significant ruling for Tennessee. The Court has correctly required Tennessee to live up to its basic values of fairness and family. The judge's ruling correctly concludes that excluding same-sex couples from state sanctioned marriage violates fundamental notions of dignity and respect protected by the United States Constitution for all Americans, including the families of same sex couples."
Attorney Harbison said: "We share our clients' excitement about today's ruling. Judge Trauger's analysis recognizes the significant harms these laws cause, which are contrary to Tennessee's stated interest in protecting families and children."
NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter said: "Today's decision marks yet another recognition by a federal court that there is no reasonable justification for laws that treat same-sex couples differently and cause so much harm to their families. The courts' decisions also reflect a broader societal movement toward respect for same-sex couples and their families. As people have gotten to know the same-sex couples who are their neighbors, co-workers, relatives, and friends, they have come to see the unfairness of laws that deny protection to loving, stable relationships and stigmatize children being raised by same-sex parents."