Full house for same-sex divorce argument at 5th Court

There was a packed courtroom at Dallas’ 5th Court of Appeals today for In the Matter of the Marriage of J.B. and H.B.The Texas Office of the Attorney General, represented by Texas Assistant Solicitor General James Blacklock, argued against the grant of a divorce for a same-sex couple who married in Massachusetts but who now reside in Texas. The OAG filed the notice of appeal in the case on Oct. 2, 2009, after 302nd District Judge Tena Callahan ruled that the state's constitutional and statutory provisions prohibiting the recognition of same-sex marriage violate the right to equal protection and therefore the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. She further found she had jurisdiction to hear the divorce of J.B. and H.B. and denied the OAG's motion to intervene in J.B.At the April 21, hearing, Blacklock argued that granting a same-sex divorce would recognize a same-sex marriage, in violation of Texas law. “We have a specific statute that denies that relief,” Blacklock told the panel, which consists of Justices David Bridges, Kerry P. FitzGerald, and Robert M. Fillmore. Representing J.B. are Peter Schulte, a partner in Dallas' Schulte & Apgar, and James "Jody" Scheske, a partner in Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Austin. J.B. has objected to the OAG's intervention and, like his partner, has asked not to be identified. Scheske argued that the panel should bar the OAG’s motion to intervene in the case and allow a Dallas trial court to grant his client a divorce. During the one-hour hearing, Fitzgerald and Bridges peppered Scheske with questions. Scheske told the justices repeatedly that he was not seeking to have the court condone a same-sex marriage, but rather he wanted to have one marriage celebrated in another state dissolved in Texas. “If the divorce is granted in this case, there will be one less same-sex marriage in Texas,” Scheske said. At the end of the nearly one-hour hearing, Fitzgerald told those gathered that his court rarely sees such a big crowd, and he welcomed all the visitors to return for another, unrelated hearing later that afternoon.
--Miriam Rozen