Texas Proposition 2 of 2005 created an amendment that limits marriage to opposite-sex relationships and prohibits alternative legal arrangements of a similar nature. The bill intended to amend the Texas Constitution to make it unconstitutional for the state to recognize or perform same-sex marriages, plural marriages, or civil unions. The referendum was approved by 76% of the voters, with Travis County, Texas (which contains Austin, Texas) the only county opposing the amendment.[1]
The text of the amendment states:
(a) Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.
(b) This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.[2]
Shortly before the election, a minister in Austin, Texas, opposed the amendment on technical grounds. According to the minister, the wording of subsection (b) could actually be used to outlaw marriage itself. Proponents claimed that such reasoning was simply a "smokescreen" to confuse voters on the issue.[3][4] In November 2009, Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a candidate for Texas attorney general, echoed the assertion that, since marriage is by definition identical to itself, the amendment outlaws all marriage in Texas.[5]
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The status of the amendment was struck down in a lower court ruling on October 1, 2009, by Dallas District Judge Tena Callahan on the grounds that it denies same-sex couples equal treatment under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit was filed by a same-sex couple living in Dallas who had married in Massachusetts in 2006 and were seeking to get a divorce in Texas, because Massachusetts only permits state residents to sue for divorce. Dallas attorney Peter Schulte also claimed the protection of Article IV of the U. S. Constitution, which gives "full faith and credit" by all states to acts validly performed in one. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Governor Rick Perry appealed to the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas, Texas, hoping to get the decision overturned. On August 31, 2010 The Court reversed the ruling on the grounds that the Texas constitutional ban on same-sex marriage does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court further ruled that district courts in Texas do not have subject-matter jurisdiction to hear a same-sex divorce case. The case is known as In Re Marriage of J.B. and H.B.[6] Same-sex marriages are still illegal in Texas. AP
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