Late today, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger issued a preliminary injunction stopping Tennessee from enforcing the state laws that prohibit the recognition of their out-of-state marriages. This injunction only applies to the three same-sex couples named in the lawsuit and is only preliminary while their case makes it way through the federal court system.
In October, four Tennessee same-sex couples, legally married in other states, filed a lawsuit in federal district court challenging the Tennessee laws that prevent the state from recognizing their marriages and treating them the same as all other legally married couples in Tennessee.
Tennessee law currently prohibits recognition of their marriages and treats the couples as legal strangers.
The lawsuit argues that Tennessee’s laws prohibiting recognition of the couples’ marriages violates the federal Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and due process and the constitutionally protected right to travel between and move to other states.
“At this point, all signs indicate that, in the eyes of the United States Constitution, the plaintiffs’ marriages will be placed on an equal footing with those of heterosexual couples and that proscriptions against same-sex marriage will soon become a footnote in the annals of American history,” Judge Aleta Arthur Trauger wrote in the order, according to the Tennessean.
According to the Tennessean, the state attorney general’s office issued the following statement: “We are reviewing the decision and intend to take all necessary steps to defend the law.”
In an email from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, co-counsel in the case, "Judge Aleta Trauger ordered the State of Tennessee to immediately begin treating our clients as the married spouses they are while the case proceeds in court. This preliminary decision is amazing news and a huge relief for the couples—including Sophy and Valeria, who are expecting their first baby together any day now." (Pictured above)