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Local Reactions Following Supreme Court Marriage Decision

Posted/updated on: June 29, 2015 at 1:59 am
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Smith County Courthouse3TYLER — Smith County officials are awaiting guidance from the state following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday to legalize same-sex marriage. Smith County Clerk Karen Phillips is “in limbo” as she awaits instructions from the state. Phillips said she has even placed a call to the county’s software vendor who is currently working to have a new procedure in place. Phillips said at a news conference Friday afternoon, “Just as these couples want to have their union legalized, the County Clerk’s Office must ensure the union is legal by following the process disseminated by the Texas Department of State Health Services, Vital Statistics Unit.”

Karen Phillips-Smith County Clerk
Here is Phillips’ full statement:
After Mrs. Phillips contacted Victor Farinelli, Communications/Field Services Manager for the Vital Statistics Unit in Austin, he told her, “The Department of State Health Services Vital Statistics Unit and the Office of General Counsel will need to review the court’s ruling, in consideration with the Office of the Attorney General. We will notify all County Clerks as soon as we have been provided direction on how to proceed.”

Phillips also contacted Mike McNutt, Area Representative for the Texas Department of State Health Service Vital Statistics Unit. He also said the Department of State Health Services would review the court’s ruling in consultation with the Attorney General’s Office to determine what, if any, changes are needed. She earlier said I am most confident the state will want these processes to be uniform as the state has dictated in the past with all aspects of recording death and birth certificates and marriage licenses. I have also placed a call to our software vendor who is currently working to have a new procedure in place but until Austin issues the forms necessary for uniformity, we are in limbo.”

In Longview, Gregg County Clerk Connie Wade tells the Longview News Journal ā€œThe license that weā€™ve been using is gender specific. It has a line where we fill in the name for ā€œmisterā€ and ā€œmissus,ā€ so the face of that license has to be changed first. That form also is gender specific. It has a place to be filled out by a male and for information to be filled out for a female.” She said the application form for a marriage license is issued to the local county clerkā€™s office from the Bureau of Vital Statistics which is from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Wade added, ā€œWe are required to use the form that they have approved. Until they make that change, I donā€™t have a document to use as an application for marriage license.ā€

Louie Gohmert2
Following the Supreme Court decision, Tyler congressman Louie Gohmert released the following statement:
ā€œIt is a tragic and ominous day for the United States when a decision by five unelected justices of the U.S. Supreme Court blatantly violates the law in order to destroy the foundational building block for society provided by Nature and Natureā€™s God ā€“ that was stated as divine law by Moses and Jesus. Our nation has been blessed with liberty, opportunity, power, and individual prosperity beyond any other nation in history. Both Moses and Jesus stated that it was Godā€™s law that ā€˜a man will leave his father and mother and a woman will leave her home and the two will come together as one.ā€™ That defined marriage. Jesus even added that the defined marriage that God brought together should not be divided by anyone. The Supreme Court ruling is heartbreaking for the turmoil it will mean for our nationā€™s future.

Gohmert went on to say:
“The U.S. Constitution gives neither Congress nor federal Courts any authority over marriage. Now, the Supreme Court majority flaunts the law, the U.S. Constitution, and makes its mark in history sealing our fate unless America makes a dramatic turn. Though Chief Justice Roberts was part of the minority today, he has previously and again yesterday established for the Court his example that what the law and Constitution says is of no consequence when his Court has an agenda.”

Gohmert said major question now looming is whether a nation has to comply with law that was promulgated by a Supreme Court majority that included two justices who were legally barred from participating in the new court-legislated, civilization-changing decision that destroys our nationā€™s heritage of Biblical marriage. “May God forgive our Supreme Court majority for its arrogance and its self-apotheosis.”

Matt Schaefer4
The Supreme Court decision brought the following comment for Tyler state representative Matt Schaefer:
“God defined marriage. 1 man and 1 woman. He created marriage as the foundational unit of the family. For our good and His glory. There is great danger to our country when we break the moral foundation of our law. America was built upon the principles of morality found in the Bible. When we step off that rock-solid foundation, we step into shifting sands and will be blown away when the storm comes.

David Simpson
Here is what Longview state representative David Simpson had to say about the Supreme Court decision:
Today the Supreme Court ruled against states that have adopted constitutional amendments recognizing marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Civil government’s role in marriage should be to recognize marriage and respect it, not to redefine it or pretend that it is a government creation.

Though we may be deeply dismayed at this decision by the court, the problem is not simply a legal one. As a society we often fail to esteem marriage. Our culture frequently condones and even celebrates pre-marital sex, adultery and unnatural arrangements that diminish and erode the family. Our fight to restore and enhance the sacred institution of marriage as revealed by God, must be won in hearts as well as in courtrooms.



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