The Texas Supreme Court will actually debate whether married gay couples have equal rights
In a shock move, the Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a case around whether married same-sex couples should have equal spousal benefits.
Despite it appearing glaringly clear that the answer is that same-sex couples deserve equal rights in marriage to other couples, the arguments will be heard.
The case revolves around same-sex spouses being offered equal benefits to straight couples in the city of Houston in 2015.
But the Supreme Court in the state has taken an unusual step in agreeing to hear the case as back in September it voted 8-1 not to hear the case.
Justice John P. Devine was the only dissenting justice on the bench, writing at the time that the US Supreme Court ruling in favour of equal marriage “concerned access to marriage, not an Equal Protection challenge to the allocation of employment benefits.”
The case basically revolves around whether the US Supreme Court granted equal rights to marry to same-sex couples or rather equal rights in marriage to same-sex couples.
Houston city defends itself, writing in a response: “The issue here is not whether employee benefits are a fundamental right… It is simply whether same-sex spouses must be allowed the same employee benefits as opposite-sex spouses.”
Oral arguments are to be heard on 1 March.
But the lawsuit, backed by some prominent Republicans in the state, is already being criticised as a waste of taxpayer dollars by the state.
