Tanco v. Haslam

7 F. Supp. 3d 759, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33463, 2014 WL 997525
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Tennessee
DecidedMarch 14, 2014
DocketCase No. 3:13-cv-01159
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 7 F. Supp. 3d 759 (Tanco v. Haslam) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tanco v. Haslam, 7 F. Supp. 3d 759, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33463, 2014 WL 997525 (M.D. Tenn. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

ALETA A. TRAUGER, District Judge.

Before the court is the plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction (Docket No. 29), to which the defendants filed a Response in opposition (Docket No. 35) and the Family Action Council of Tennessee (“FACT”) filed an amicus brief in opposition (Docket No. 43), and thp plaintiffs filed a Reply (Docket No. 46) and several Notices of Filing of Supplementary Authority (Docket Nos. 48, 55, 56, and 58). For the reasons stated herein, the motion will be granted.

OVERVIEW

The plaintiffs are three married, same-sex couples who lived and were legally married in other states before moving to Tennessee.1 Tennessee does not recognize their marriages for one reason only: they do not reflect a union between “one man and one woman.” See Tenn. Const. Art. XI, § 18; Tenn.Code Ann. § 36-3-113 (collectively, the “Anti-Recognition Laws”).2 The plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of the Anti-Recognition Laws.3 Pending a final decision on the merits of their claims, the plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction that would prevent the defendants from enforcing the Anti-Recognition Laws against them.

At the outset, given the sensitivity of the issues presented, the court emphasizes the narrowness of the decision it is issuing today.

First, the nature of a preliminary injunction remedy is just that — preliminary. It is not a final judgment on the merits of a case. Instead, it preliminarily enjoins a party (here, effectively, the State of Tennessee) from engaging in a particular action until the court can rule on the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims at a later stage, typically with the benefit of more evidence and legal authority. In making its decision, the court must decide, among other things, whether the plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the merits of their claims, not that they have prevailed or that they necessarily will prevail on their claims. In [763]*763other words, the court’s decision today simply reflects its best projection, based on the evidence and the existing state of the law, as to whether the plaintiffs are likely to win their case. Currently, all relevant federal authority indicates that the plaintiffs in this case are indeed likely to prevail on their claims that the Anti-Recognition Laws are unconstitutional. That said, by the time that this court is asked to render a final judgment, it may be that other federal courts will have reached a different interpretation that favors the defendants’ position. By the same token, it may be that federal courts will continue uniformly to strike down anti-recognition laws, state same-sex marriage bans, and other laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation. The impact of future decisions, which are forthcoming as the result of continuing litigation in other federal trial and appellate courts across the country, will inevitably influence the ultimate disposition of this case.

Second, the plaintiffs have not directly challenged Tennessee’s refusal to permit same-sex marriages from being consummated in Tennessee. Instead, the plaintiffs challenge only Tennessee’s refusal to recognize marriages legally consummated by same-sex couples in other states, such as a same-sex couple that weds in New York (a state that permits same-sex marriage) before moving to Tennessee.

Third, even with respect to the Anti-Recognition Laws, the plaintiffs seek temporary relief only as to the six specific plaintiffs (three couples) remaining in this lawsuit. They do not seek class relief in their Complaint or in their request for a preliminary injunction.

As explained in this opinion, the plaintiffs have persuaded the court to enjoin enforcement of the Anti-Recognition Laws against them, pending a final decision on the merits. The court’s order only means that, at least for the time being, Tennessee will not be able to enforce the Anti-Recognition Laws, against six people (three same-sex couples) until the court renders a final judgment in the case. Thus, even after today, Tennessee’s ban on the consummation of same-sex marriages within Tennessee remains in place, and Tennessee may continue to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages consummated in other states, except as to the six plaintiffs in this case. The court’s opinion should not be construed in any other way.4

THE PLAINTIFFS

The plaintiffs in this case have filed un-rebutted affidavits that describe their personal backgrounds, how they met their [764]*764respective spouses, when and why they moved to Tennessee, and the harm that they have suffered, or may suffer, from Tennessee’s enforcement of the Anti-Recognition Laws. The court will summarize the circumstances of each couple briefly.

I. Dr. Valeria Tanco and Dr. Sophia Jesty

Valeria Tanco and Sophia Jesty are both professors at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. They met in 2009 at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, fell in love in 2010, and legally married each other in New York on September 9, 2011. After spending a year living apart, they sought to find work as professors in the same geographic area. When the University of Tennessee’s College of Veterinary Medicine offered positions to both of them, they accepted the offers and began residing together in Knoxville, Tennessee.

In addition to certain alleged injuries common to all plaintiffs, Dr. Tanco and Dr. Jesty have several special concerns. First, they purchased a house together, but, because Tennessee law may treat them as strangers rather than as a married couple, they are not assured of the same property protections in their home as a heterosexual married couple. Second, the University of Tennessee health insurance system will not permit them to combine their respective individual health insurance plans into a family plan, because UT’s insurance plan incorporates the Anti-Recognition Laws. Third, in the summer of 2013, Dr. Tanco became pregnant through artificial insemination, and her due date is March 21, 2014.5 Under the existing state of the law in Tennessee, upon the birth of their child, Dr. Jesty will not be recognized as the child’s parent, and many of the legal rights that would otherwise attach to the birth of a child (artificially inseminated or otherwise) will not apply to Dr. Jesty or to the child. These include the child’s right to Social Security benefits as a surviving child if Dr. Jesty should die, the right for Dr. Jesty to visit her child at a hospital if Dr. Tanco is unable to give consent to her presence at the time the baby is born, and the right of Dr. Jesty to make medical decisions regarding the medical care provided to their baby in the event that Dr. Tanco is unable to make those decisions. Fourth, and finally, they are concerned about the environment in which their child will be raised, fearing that Tennessee’s refusal to recognize her parents’ marriage will stigmatize her, cause her to believe that she and her family are entitled to less dignity than her peers and their families, and give her the impression that her parents’ love and their family unit is somehow less stable.

II. Sergeant Ijpe DeKoe & Mr. Thomas Kostura

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Bluebook (online)
7 F. Supp. 3d 759, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33463, 2014 WL 997525, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tanco-v-haslam-tnmd-2014.