Tennessee judge denies couple’s divorce, because gay marriage

An East Tennessee judge contends the U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage has derailed Tennessee’s ability to determine what constitutes divorce – leaving one Signal Mountain couple married against their will.

Specifically, Atherton wrote:

The conclusion reached by this Court is that Tennesseans have been deemed by the U.S. Supreme Court to be incompetent to define and address such keystone/central institutions such as marriage, and, thereby, at minimum, contested divorces.

Two Tennessee residents are being forced to stay married by a judge with an apparent bone to pick over the US Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.

Atherton concludes that, after four days of testimony making the case for the Bumgardner’s mutual reasoning of “irreconcilable differences”, the marriages is not “irretrievably broken” and can be saved. Read the unique article on TPM.

Lawyers for the Bumgardners did not immediately return a request for comment from The Huffington Post.

In his ruling, the judge reasoned that since the federal court decided how every USA state should conduct marriage, it should to the same for divorce. Vanderbilt University constitutional law professor Jim Blumstein said he felt Atherton was “expressing his political disagreement” with the SCOTUS ruling. The most high profile of these is Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis who has refused to issue marriage licences on religious grounds.

They can file for divorce again, except now they have to give a different reason. “I just think change is hard for people”, she said.

Asked by the newspaper what the couple could do next, Atherton replied: ‘Hopefully, they can reconcile’.