Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. On June 26, 2015, the United States legalized same-sex marriage nationwide due to the U.S.
They obtained their license and wed before Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained stays from the Texas Supreme Court and asked that court to void the marriage license. One ordered the recognition of a common-law marriage between two women and the other order the county clerk to issue a marriage license to two women. In February 2015, two state judges in Travis County held the state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.
Both cases were appealed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. On April 23, 2014, Judge Barbara Nellermoe, of the 45th Judicial District Court of Bexar County, found that Texas's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
On February 26, 2014, Judge Orlando Luis Garcia, of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, found that Texas's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. In 2005, voters approved a referendum that added those restrictions to the Texas Constitution. Additional legislation in 2003 forbade the recognition of any same-sex marriages or civil unions. In 1997, Texas banned the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. HB 103 became effective on January 1, 1974.
In 1973, the Texas Family Code was amended by House Bill 103 to explicitly state that a marriage license may only be issued to a man and a woman. Martin issued an opinion that, despite the lack of a specific prohibition against same-sex marriage in statute, it was not legally permitted. The first legal challenge to Texas' ban on marriage between two people of the same sex came in 1972 when Travis Co Attorney Ned Granger requested an opinion from Attorney General Crawford Martin on the legality of issuing such licenses.