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Ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide

The Texas supreme court heard arguments Wednesday in a Houston case that top Republicans hope will provide an opening to chip away at the landmark 2015 ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide.
A coalition of religious and social conservatives sued America’s fourth-largest city in 2013, challenging its decision to offer same-sex spousal benefits to municipal employees. Last year, Texas’s all-Republican court refused to hear the matter on appeal, in effect allowing the marriage benefits in the wake of the US supreme court decision in Obergefell v Hodges that the constitution grants gay couples seeking to marry “equal dignity in the eyes of the law”.
But the state supreme court reversed itself in January, amid pressure from the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, and the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, as well as dozens of other conservative elected officials, church leaders and grassroots activists.

Find out more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/01/texas-supreme-court-gay-marriage-same-sex-benefits