Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton acted
quickly on Thursday to block two rulings which allowed one lesbian
couple to marry.
Hours after Sarah Goodfriend and
Suzanne Bryant exchanged vows outside the Travis County Clerk's
Office, Paxton asked the Texas Supreme Court to stay the two rulings
which made the marriage possible.
A day after Travis County Probate Judge
Guy Herman struck down Texas' ban on gay marriage as part of an
estate fight, Goodfriend and Bryant, together more than 30 years,
asked a separate judge to force Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir
to issue them a marriage license and wave the customary 72-hour
waiting period. The couple cited Goodfriend's diagnosis and
treatment for ovarian cancer in arguing that the state's continued
refusal to issue them a marriage license was causing them irreparable
harm.
(Related: Lesbian
couple marries in Texas after gay marriage ban stuck down.)
Paxton
said in a statement that the Texas Supreme Court had stayed the
rulings and that the women's license was “void.”
“The Court's action upholds our state
constitution and stays these rulings by activist judges in Travis
County,” Paxton said. “The same-sex marriage license issued by
the Travis County Clerk is void, just as any license issued in
violation of state law would be. I will continue to defend the will
of the people of Texas, who have defined marriage as between one man
and one woman, against any judicial activism or overreach.”
DeBeauvoir, however, said that the
couple's marriage was still legal: “The Texas Supreme Court order
on the Motion for Temporary Relief has stayed further proceedings in
the trial court, and is not directed at the County Clerk. I have
every reason to believe that the actions I took this morning were
legally correct based on the trial court's order, and that the
license my office issued was then and is now valid.”