[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Texas [official website] on Thursday granted an emergency stay [order, text] of two trial court decisions [JURIST report] in Travis County, which held that an amendment to Texas’s constitution banning same-sex marriage violates the equal protection and due process [Cornell LLI backgrounders] clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The stay will block [press release] same-sex couples from obtaining marriage licenses in the state of Texas. Attorney General Ken Paxton stated, “[t]he Court’s action upholds our state constitution and stays these rulings by activist judges in Travis County.” This stay was issued shortly after the court issued a separate order to a same-sex couple, allowing their marriage for health reasons. The current stay will not effect the order allowing this couple to marry.

Same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] continues to be one of the most polarizing legal topics in the US today. Last week Alabama began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the US Supreme Court refused to extend a two-week stay [JURIST report] on the federal judge’s ruling that held same-sex marriage was unconstitutional in the state. Last month a judge for the US District Court the Southern District of Alabama struck down [JURIST report] the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment and the Alabama Marriage Protection Act [text], ruling them unconstitutional. Also last month the Supreme Court agreed to rule [JURIST report] on same-sex marriage, granting certiorari [order list, PDF] in four cases.