WASHINGTON – After today’s sweeping ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States, striking down bans on marriage equality in all 50 states, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, called on Texas officials to act with all deliberate speed to remove remaining obstacles to marriage equality.
In a letter to Governor Gregg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, HRC’s Legal Director Sarah Warbelow made the case for immediate action:
“In order to be in full compliance with the law, we urge you to take immediate action to ensure that Judges or Justices of the Peace begin issuing marriage licenses to all eligible Texas couples immediately. […] Delaying the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples is not only unlawful, but allows the discriminatory impacts of an unconstitutional law to continue.”
HRC also issued letters to the governors and attorneys general of Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Tennessee (states where marriage licenses were not previously being issued to same-sex couples statewide) and of Alabama (where the state supreme court had sought to obstruct the issuance of marriage licenses).
In a sweeping 5-4 ruling issued earlier today, the majority of the Supreme Court made clear that bans on marriage equality did not pass constitutional muster—and that all 50 states should begin extending the right to marry to all committed and loving couples.