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May 8, 2008

Hearing today in same-sex divorce case

PROVIDENCE -- A hearing is scheduled for Superior Court today involving a same-sex couple who were married in Massachusetts and are trying to get a divorce in Rhode Island.

Margaret R. Chambers and Cassandra B. Ormiston married in Fall River in 2004, shortly after Massachusetts became the first state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The Providence couple sought a divorce in Rhode Island Family Court in 2006. But in a December 2007 decision that drew national attention, a divided Supreme Court ruled that Family Court lacked jurisdiction to grant the divorce. The majority opinion said that under the law allowing Family Court to handle divorces, the word "marriage" means just one thing: the union of a man and a woman.

Last month, a lawyer representing Chambers filed a motion asking Superior Court to pose a different question to the Supreme Court: "May the Superior Court properly recognize, for the purpose of entertaining a divorce petition, the marriage of two persons of the same sex who were purportedly married in another state?"

Chambers’ lawyer, Louis M. Pulner, said in an interview that the December decision was based on the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the 1961 statute that created Family Court, but there would be no such statute to analyze in determining if the Superior Court can grant the divorce.

The motion to certify a question to the Supreme Court is scheduled to be heard before Superior Court Judge Patricia A. Hurst.

Meanwhile, the General Assembly is considering several bills involving same-sex marriage, including a bill that would allow same-sex couple to divorce in Rhode Island.

Posted by Jack Perry  at 9:56 AM | Permalink

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