WHO: ADF Senior Legal Counsel Austin R. Nimocks
WHAT: Available for interviews after hearing in O’Darling v. O’Darling
WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 25, after hearing, which begins at 1:30 p.m. CST
WHERE: Tulsa County Courthouse, 500 S. Denver Ave., Room 349, Tulsa
TULSA, Okla. — Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Austin R. Nimocks will be available for media interviews immediately after Tuesday’s hearing in O’Darling v. O’Darling. ADF attorneys are representing Oklahoma Speaker of the House Chris Benge in the case involving details surrounding a so-called same-sex “divorce.”
“The government cannot issue a divorce for a ‘marriage’ it doesn’t recognize. The Oklahoma Supreme Court was right to determine that the lower court acted within its authority when it vacated the divorce decree it erroneously issued in this case because it didn’t know the parties involved were of the same sex,” said Nimocks. “We trust this hearing will clarify some of the conflicting details in the accounts provided to the court by the same-sex couple involved.”
On July 1, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that a lower court was within its authority when it vacated a “divorce” decree for two women who were purportedly “married” in Canada (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4594). Oklahoma has a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman.
The high court remanded the case back to the trial court because the lower court had not notified the two women, Cait O’Darling and Stephanie A. Griffith, that the case was being dismissed for failing to have a claim that the court could remedy.
At Tuesday’s hearing, O’Darling will be provided the opportunity to clear up conflicting details presented in the case, such as why O’Darling was seeking a “divorce” several months after Griffith had legally married a man, and why O’Darling claims to have “married” Griffith in Canada several months before same-sex “marriage” became legal in that country.
A fact sheet on the lawsuit is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/O’DarlingFactSheet.pdf.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
www.telladf.org