[JURIST] Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [official website] filed suit [complaint, PDF; press release] on Wednesday against the US Department of Labor (DOL) [official website] over a plan that would allow same-sex couples medical leave benefits. The proposed legislation involves the Family Medical Leave Act [DOL backgrounder], which requires employers to allow employees time off for certain familial emergencies. As Texas has not legalized same-sex marriage within the state, the proposed legislation would extend the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples validly married in states that recognize same-sex marriages. Paxton argues that this would require Texas agencies to violate state law in implementing the federal legislation in relation to same-sex couples married in other states. The legality of the same-sex marriage ban within Texas is currently being decided in the federal courts, and the US Supreme Court [official website] is expected to rule on the issue in June.

Same-sex marriage [JURIST new archive] continues to be one of the most polarizing legal topics in the US today. Same-sex marriage is permitted in 37 states and the District of Columbia. Earlier this month the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit stayed a ruling [JURIST report] of the US District Court for the District of Nebraska that would have allowed same-sex couples in Nebraska to marry beginning on March 9. In February a Texas county judge ruled that the state’s same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional [JURIST report], but that decision was limited to the case at hand.