Two women were married in Massachusetts, where their marriage was legal. They then moved to Florida, and they now want to get a divorce. However, they are having to fight their way through the court system to see if the divorce will be permitted.
Their first attempt to get divorced has already been denied. The court said that they could not do so on the grounds that same-sex marriage is not permitted in Florida, so they are not recognized by that state as a married couple.
The case was then sent on to the Florida Supreme Court. However, that court has now sent it back down. The Supreme Court could have looked at the constitutionality of the ban on same-sex married in Florida, but it said that it would not do so.
The lower court initially sent the case to the Supreme Court by a vote of 10-3. The three that were against simply seem to have thought that the issue of gay marriage was not something that was so drastically important that the state’s main court needed to see it. The Supreme Court agreed with them on that point, and they decided to just send the case down to the 2nd District Court of Appeals, saying that body had to make a ruling instead.
This case is important to watch for anyone in Florida who may be thinking about a same-sex marriage or a same-sex divorce, as the legality of both are tied closely to the way that Florida views gay marriage in the first place, and rulings in this case may help to define that a bit more.