Texas Supreme Court Dismisses Attempt To Void Early Same-Sex Marriage

As reported by the Austin Statesman, the Texas Supreme Court today unanimously dismissed as moot a petition for mandamus filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to invalidate a same-sex marriage performed in the state four months before the U.S. Supreme Court decided the Obergefell case creating marriage equality throughout the United States.  However in the Texas case, In re State of Texas, (April 15, 2016), Justice Willett in a concurring opinion joined by Justice Devine (full text) took the lower court to task for ignoring a procedural statute in Texas that requires Texas courts to notify the attorney general of state constitutional challenges and give the state 45 days to weigh in before the case is decided. Justice Brown in a concurring opinion joined by Justice Devine (full text) argued that the trial court procedurally should not have used the device of a temporary restraining order to allow the same-sex marriage to go forward, after which plaintiffs dismissed their lawsuit. [Thanks to How Appealing for the lead.]