FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Yesterday, David Fowler, an attorney with the Constitutional Government Defense Fund, filed a lawsuit in the Chancery Court of Williamson County, Tennessee, on behalf of a number of ministers and concerned citizens over purely legal, constitutional issues created by the United States Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
The five plaintiffs include three ministers — George Grant, Larry Tomczak and Lyndon Allen — who live in Williamson County, as well as Tim McCorkle and Deborah Deaver, who also live in the county.
According to Fowler, the proposal to challenge Obergefell will:
- Keep local officials from being sued in federal court and hauled off to jail for contempt for not obeying a federal court order.
- Allow Tennesseans to fight the really important legal issue—the lawfulness and constitutionality of Obergefell—in state court, where there is some measure of judicial accountability, rather than federal court.
- Allow locally-chosen attorneys to argue over the effect of Obergefell.
- Eliminate the risk that the Attorney General will refuse to defend legislation.
- Eliminate the risk of the Governor vetoing the legislation or choosing not to “enforce” any legislation.
“These courageous citizens have asked our state court system to ‘declare’ what the law is after Obergefell,” Fowler said. “These ministers need to know if the marriage ceremonies they have performed or will be performing are actually of any legal effect. They are merely trying to protect the rights and interests of the couples who come to them thinking that they are getting married when maybe they are not.”
Fowler continued, “The lawsuit calls attention to the fact that if everyone continues to pretend that the Supreme Court can “pass” a law to replace an existing law that the Court rules invalid, then we will no longer be living under the rule of law but under pretend laws made by judges who pretend to be legislators.”
Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee, said Fowler’s lawsuit undermines the American value that government should treat everyone equally.
“Obergefell ensures that loving, committed same-sex couples in Tennessee and nationwide who want to build and share a life together will be treated with the same respect and dignity as everyone else,” she said.
The lawsuit comes one day after a House subcommittee rejected “The Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act,” which would have declared the Obergefell ruling to be unconstitutional.
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The Family Action Council of Tennessee contributed to this report.
