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Texas Supreme Court Candidates Married Same Sex Couples

Travis County Judges Marry Same Sex Couples in 2015

Meachum and Triana Have History of Supporting Marriage Equality Even as the U.S. Court Plans to Revisit Decision

As the U.S. Senate plans on wrapping up confirmation hearings for nominee Amy Coney Barrett, marriage equality detractors are counting on the highest court overturning their landmark 2015 decision. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have recently indicated that it they would be willing to revisiting the decision saying the court decided a matter that should have been left to state legislatures and restricted religious freedoms. 

Meanwhile, in Texas as the November election draws near, two candidates for the Texas Supreme Court have a history of affirming marriage equality. Shortly after the United States Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015, Travis County immediately started issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples. Judge Amy Clark Meachum and Judge Gisela Triana, who are running for the Texas Supreme Court for Chief Justice and Place 8, respectively, in the November 2020 elections, were among the judges who married waiting couples.

In Texas, there is usually a 72-hour waiting period to get married, however, judges were waiving this requirement due to the historical significance of this ruling. Many couples had been waiting for years to decades to marry their partner and did not want to take any risks waiting any longer. Shortly after the decision was announced, couples had begun lining up outside the Courthouse. Judge Meachum and Triana quickly made themselves available and stayed at the Courthouse late to marry as many couples as possible. 

“When I read the opinion this morning, it caused me to have chills. It emotionally meant something to me. I love the U.S. Supreme Court and have studied it for years, and this is a very clear opinion.”

Judge Amy Clark Meachum in 2015

Judge Amy Clark Meachum and Judge Gisela Triana both stood up for the LGBTQ+ community in 2015, and will stand up for all Texans if elected to the Texas Supreme Court. According to Travis County officials, 313 marriage licenses were issued in Travis County that day. 

Early voting in Texas started on October 13 and will run until October 30. Election day is November 3. Make a plan to vote early, and make sure you vote down your ballot. 

Read the full USA TODAY story below.


Supreme Court justices set stage to end marriage equality

By Kate Sosin, The 19th

Published: October 14, 2020 

Five years after the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land with Obergefell v. Hodges, two conservative justices are calling that ruling into question, perhaps previewing the court’s agenda if Republicans succeed in confirming Amy Coney Barrett.

In declining to hear an appeal from Kim Davis, a former Kentucky clerk who turned away a same-sex couple seeking a marriage license, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito suggested that marriage equality should be overturned. The justices argued that the court decided a matter that should have been left to state legislatures and restricted religious freedoms. 

“Obergefell enables courts and governments to brand religious adherents who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman as bigots, making their religious liberty concerns that much easier to dismiss,” Thomas added.

The statement is an invitation to bring cases that would strip LGBTQ couples of the right to marry, according to LGBTQ legal experts. 

“So much for precedent and judicial restraint,” tweeted former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. “Two justices now openly call for an end to marriage equality – knowing reinforcements are on the way. “

Camilla Taylor, a Lambda Legal attorney who fought the Obergefell case that made marriage equality legal nationwide, says she is “absolutely” concerned about the fate of the law as the Senate prepares to confirm Barrett. 

“Marriage equality is one of the top issues targeted by the very wealthy far-right activists that we have battled all along,” Taylor told The 19th. 

Taylor said LGBTQ legal advocates had long hoped that the court would uphold its recent opinions as a matter of protecting the court’s legitimacy. Now, she believes that all bets are off, and, as a result, all LGBTQ rights are up for grabs.

“It is hard to trust that the court will treat our lives, our cases, in a manner that respects basic humanity,” she said.

Barrett, President Donald Trump’s pick to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has been painted as a foe of LGBTQ equality. She has given lectures to extreme anti-LGBTQ group Alliance Defending Freedom, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a hate group. Twenty-seven LGBTQ organizations opposed her confirmation to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017.

In a 2016 lecture at Jacksonville University, Barrett said it would “strain” the text of Title IX to allow transgender people to use public restrooms that match their genders, categorizing trans women as “males.”

“People will feel passionately on either side about whether physiological males who identify as females should be permitted in bathrooms, especially where there are young girls present,” Barrett said. 

But despite Barrett’s record, some feel that some basic LGBTQ rights are safe. James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, does not expect the court to overturn marriage equality outright. 

“That said, there are definitely some on the court who would overturn it,” Esseks said. “But look, the freedom to marry is something that has become a part of American culture.”

What he anticipates are wide carve-outs for people of faith that substantially undermine the institution of marriage for LGBTQ people. 

Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, has a name for those marriages. 

“From eliminating hospital visitation rights and medical decision-making in religiously affiliated medical centers to granting businesses a license to discriminate against LGBTQ couples, ‘skim-milk marriage’ would have a devastating effect on our community’s ability to live freely and openly,” he said in a statement. 

This story was published in partnership with The 19th, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy.

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