Texas clerk finds out religious beliefs don't trump the Supreme Court

Texans Joe Stapleton and Jim Cato were forced to sue to obtain their marriage license.

Texans Joe Stapleton and Jim Cato were forced to sue to obtain their marriage license.

A Hood County court clerk in Texas just got a civics lesson in how the law works when you're employed by the state. In the wake of last month's Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, Katie Lang cited her religious beliefs in repeatedly refusing to issue a marriage license to Dr. Jim Cato and his partner Joe Stapleton, who have been together 27 years.

“We’re just here to get a marriage license. We’ve been calling every day and every day we’ve been denied,” Cato said last week. “We’ve been told now it’ll be three weeks or more. If she doesn’t immediately provide us with a marriage license, then the lawsuit moves forward on Monday.”

As promised, the couple electronically filed the lawsuit against Lang on Monday morning. “If her personal beliefs keep her from her duties as county clerk,” Cato said last week, “then she should probably step out of her job.”

Lang suddenly had a change of heart. Or not. Who cares? It's her job and she finally did what she was required to do by law—issued the marriage license Cato and Stapleton had been seeking for several weeks.

The lawsuit, however, will move forward, according to the couple's lawyer, Jan Soifer.

"The lawsuit will not be dismissed until and unless we have an agreement from Clerk Lang that her office will issue marriage licenses to all couples, gay and straight, without delay, and an agreement to pay Jim and Joe’s attorneys’ fees for being forced to file the lawsuit.”