The speaker of
the Oklahoma house has filed a motion to intervene in a
case involving an appeal of a Tulsa County judge's decision
to dismiss a same-sex divorce decree, reports the
Associated Press.
Republican Lance Cargill said in the motion,
filed with the state supreme court, that because Cait
O'Darling is challenging the constitutionality of a
state law that prohibits same-sex marriage, legislative
leaders are allowed to intervene in the case.
O'Darling's appeal challenges an amendment to
the Oklahoma constitution, approved by voters in 2004,
that defines marriage as the union of one man and one
woman; it also seeks to determine whether same-sex
marriages performed in other countries are valid in Oklahoma.
As reported by AP, the appeal may also question
whether a state statute prohibiting recognition
of marriages between people of the same gender
performed in another state can also be applied to marriage
performed in Canada.
O'Darling filed for a divorce in July 2006
against her wife, identified in court documents as S.
O'Darling. Records state the pair were married in
Canada in 2002.
In November 2006 then-special district
judge C. Michael Zacharias granted the couple a
divorce but vacated the order after he discovered they were
not a heterosexual couple.
In his ruling annulling the divorce order, he
stated he could "find no authority to suggest
that Oklahoma would recognize a same-gender marriage
from a foreign country."
Cait O'Darling said the judge made a mistake in
dismissing her divorce without giving the pair notice
or a chance to be heard.
John Flippo, Cait O'Darling's attorney,
told the AP on Wednesday that a recently filed brief
in the case does not challenge the constitutionality
of any Oklahoma law and that Cargill does not have standing
to intervene in the case. (The Advocate)
