TEXAS: AG Asks State Supreme Court To Invalidate Travis County Marriage

Via the Austin Statesman:

Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday asked the Texas Supreme Court to confirm that the marriage license issued to an Austin same-sex couple a day earlier was void. As the product of a “trial court’s improper order,” Paxton argued, the marriage license was never legally valid. Paxton argued that the Supreme Court’s Thursday stay, which blocked an order by state District Judge David Wahlberg, confirmed that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage remained in effect, voiding “any same-sex marriage in Texas, no matter when or where it was entered into.” Sarah Goodfriend, left, and Suzanne Bryant were married Thursday by Rabbi Kerry Baker in Austin. Wahlberg’s ruling ordered Travis County officials to issue a marriage license to Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, leading to their wedding Thursday morning. In addition to voiding that marriage, Paxton asked the Supreme Court to make it clear that lower courts cannot rule on the constitutionality of the state’s ban on same-sex marriages while the issue is being reviewed by the Texas and U.S. Supreme Courts.

The attorney for the couple maintains that the marriage was valid at the time it was officiated.