When A Leaf Turns

Apparently, in their zeal to ban gay marriage, Texas may have overshot a little and banned all marriage. The line in their state constitution (added in 2005) causing problems is this one: “This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.” One way to look at it, and apparently a valid legal view, is to say that marriage is identical to marriage and therefore the state of Texas may not recognize it as a valid legal status.

At first blush I thought, you know, that’s one of those little snafu’s that is likely to simply be ignored. Yeah, technically marriage isn’t recognized in the state of Texas any longer. However, no one is likely to pursue that, and so even if it remains unchanged in the constitution it’s not likely to have any real effect.

But as I thought about it more I realized that it’s actually likely to come up at some point or other. The most likely avenue for a challenge to this amendment will be in the case of a divorce. Some lawyer somewhere is going to recognize that it will be a lot easier and more profitable, both for them and their client, to simply argue that the couple was never technically married at all. In that case, I’m not so sure that it won’t have to be upheld. Logically it’s a bit silly, but legal has never necessarily equaled logical.