Texas’ First Same-Sex Marriage: Product of Creative Lawyering

Attorney’s who followed the tornado of legal arguments surrounding Texas’ first legal same-sex marriage said that the newlyweds’ counsel “beautifully executed a creative legal strategy to help their clients tie the knot.”

Austin lawyer Chuck Herring handled the case pro bono for his longtime friends and a 30-year couple, Suzanne Bryant and Sarah Goodfriend.  After a local judge declared the state’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional in a probate case, the women sued the Travis County clerk, whereby a judge then issued a temporary restraining order forcing the clerk to issue the women a marriage license.  Thirty-eight minutes later the women were married and the lawsuit was dropped. 

Bryant described her wedding day as surreal and nerve-wracking, but also special: “When the rabbi came and we had the religious ceremony is when it really hit me.  That slowed me down, brought me back down to earth, and I realized we were married not only with a valid marriage license in the state of Texas, but we were married in the eyes of God by our rabbi.” 

Family law attorney Michelle May O’Neil said the plaintiffs’ lawyer used “very creative lawyering.”  She explained, “It’s not something that anyone ever tried here—or been successful in trying—to get a marriage license issued.  It’s so creative: It’s like a chess game, and everyone is making different moves and seeing which ones are working out.”

See Angela Morris, The Wedding Planner: A Step-By Step Legal Analysis of State’s First Same-Sex Marriage, Texas Lawyer, March 2, 2015.