Austin Lawsuit Challenges No-Fault Divorce Under Obergefell

[Sanguine]

September 5, 2018

by Tony McDonald

One Austin family law attorney is taking her client’s divorce case to the Texas Supreme Court, arguing that the landmark 2015 US Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges mandating state recognition of homosexual marriage renders the state’s no-fault divorce law unconstitutional as applied to her client’s marriage.

Mark and Shawn Lecuona were married in 1994 and have two children. According to court records, the Lecuonas’ marriage was based on the Christian concept that the marriage “was a covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus” and the pair could not be separated. Mark moved out of their shared marital residence in 2008 and filed for divorce in 2014. However, Shawn asserts the legitimate religious and personal ends of the marriage have not been destroyed and that her marriage to Mark must continue.

A Travis County district judge disagreed and issued a Final Decree of Divorce in Lecuona v. Lecuona in September, 2016, under Texas Family Code §6.001, which allows the state to terminate a marriage “without regard to fault if the marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities that destroys the legitimate ends of the marital relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation.”...

https://empowertexans.com/around-texas/austin-lawsuit-challenges-no-fault-divorce-under-obergefell/

This is an odd one.