How long before we see scenes like this in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi?
The nation's most conservative federal appeals court is
hearing arguments Friday for and against marriage equality in three conservative southern states: Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. On the very same day, the Supreme Court will consider whether to take a marriage case that could determine whether the 5th Circuit's decision—for or against equality—will ultimately stand.
All three states in the 5th Circuit have already seen decisions from federal district judges, with one standing out: Judges in Texas and Mississippi have ruled same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional, but a judge in Louisiana upheld such a law. The three states, seeking to keep their discriminatory laws on the books, have the typical arguments about states' rights meaning the right to discriminate and it being in the state's interest to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples because babies. Meanwhile, these laws are making life difficult for actual families and their babies. In Louisiana, Jackie and Lauren Brettner's right to take their daughter on a trip to Panama was challenged by airport security:
"He wanted a copy of a birth certificate that showed us as parents," said Jackie, recalling their encounter with a security agent at Louis Armstrong International Airport. "He said he couldn't let us leave with her without permission from her father."
The Brettners' daughter was conceived by artificial insemination, and Lauren gave birth in 2013. The couple were married in New York in 2012, but the Louisiana Registrar will not issue a birth certificate that lists two parents of the same sex. Louisiana law also bars Jackie from adopting a child born to Lauren, as a male stepfather might do for his wife's child.
Getting on the plane required convincing the agent, with a sheaf of documents including their sperm donor contract and other records, that there was no father able -- or necessary - to give permission for their daughter to leave the country, and that Jackie and Lauren were her sole parents.
In the longer term, the Supreme Court will pretty much have to be the decider on this one. Even if the 5th Circuit surprises us with a pro-equality decision, the 6th Circuit has already broken with the four other appeals courts to have decided marriage cases, by upholding bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. That puts it on the Supreme Court to settle the split.