Monday morning, Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton filed a lawsuit against Katie Lang, a Hood County Clerk who refused to file the couple’s application for a marriage license.
“Our clients offered the $83 that is required to get a marriage license in Texas and the clerk refused to take their money,” Austin Kaplan, one of the attorney’s representing Cato and Stapleton said, “and she told them we will not issue you a marriage license today.”
According to the lawsuit, Cato and Stapleton contacted the Hood County Clerk’s office on several occasions last week, but were denied their marriage license on grounds of religious beliefs and unavailable forms.
“At that point they authorized us to send a demand letter, demanding that if the license was not issued by the close of business on Thursday, we’d be filing suit this morning,” attorney Jan Soifer said.
As promised, Cato and Stapleton’s legal counsel filed the lawsuit Monday morning. Three hours later, they received an email from the Hood County Clerk’s office with a signed marriage license for Joe and Jim attached.
“This is serious business,” Kaplan said. “This is a constitutional violation, and the clerks of Texas should consider this to be very serious.”
This lawsuit marks the second lawsuit filed in four days against a Texas County clerk who refused to issue a same-sex marriage license. The first lawsuit was filed on Friday in Tyler, and was dropped after the clerk issued the same-sex license.
Cato and Stapleton, however, said they are not dropping the charges, despite receiving their marriage license. The couple, who’ve been together for 27 years, said they want the clerk to pay for all of their legal fees and ensure that their office will continue issuing same-sex marriage licenses to all couples.
“It’s just been a very difficult time for our clients,” Soifer said. “All of this could have been avoided if the Hood County Clerk would have just done the right thing, followed the rule of law, the constitution and the Supreme Court decision.”
We reached out to the Hood County Clerk’s office, and did not receive a response at the time this article was published.
TX Couple Sues Hood Co. Clerk for Refusing to Issue Marriage License
