ADF: Same-sex couple cannot “divorce” in R.I., where same-sex “marriage” is not recognized
ADF attorneys file friend-of-the-court brief explaining that divorce is not legally possible for non-marital relationshipsPROVIDENCE, R.I. — In a lawsuit involving two women seeking to “divorce” one another, attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a friend-of-the-court brief Wednesday at the Supreme Court of Rhode Island arguing that a divorce can be granted only to married couples and not to couples in other relationship contracts.
“Marriage has always been one man and one woman in Rhode Island. Everything else is counterfeit. Rhode Island should not allow same-sex ‘divorce’ to become a back-door entrance to the recognition of same-sex ‘marriage,’” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Austin Nimocks.
The two women, Margaret Chambers and Cassandra Ormiston, both residents of Rhode Island, traveled across the state to Massachusetts and obtained a “marriage” license there in May 2004. The couple subsequently insisted on petitioning the Rhode Island courts for a “divorce.”
“If the Supreme Court of Rhode Island grants a ‘divorce’ to these two women, the ruling would radically redefine marriage in Rhode Island without legislative or voter input,” said Nimocks. “Rhode Island’s public policy on marriage is clear and same-sex ‘marriage’ isn’t a part of it.”
A copy of the friend-of-the-court brief filed at the Supreme Court of Rhode Island in the case Chambers v. Ormiston can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/ChambersAmicus.pdf.
ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
