Texas Supreme Court declines to hear Houston same-sex benefits case — again

The Texas Supreme Court has declined to consider a challenge aimed at preventing the city of Houston from offering benefits to employees’ same-sex spouses. The ruling is the latest blow to two Houston residents’ prolonged fight against a policy they consider an illegal use of taxpayer dollars. Plaintiffs Jack Pidgeon and Larry Hicks have waged a legal battle against the policy since 2013, when the city, then led by former Mayor Annise Parker, granted government benefits to municipal employees’ same-sex spouses. Parker was the city’s first openly gay mayor. On Friday, the state Supreme Court declined to review the pair’s case against the city, which originated nine years ago and has failed to find footing even in the conservative-leaning Texas judiciary.

Neither Pidgeon, Hicks or their attorney Jared Woodfill could be reached for comment Tuesday. The pair have a long history of opposing the policy. Pidgeon and Hicks sued the city shortly after it granted same-sex couples benefits in 2013, a lawsuit that continued even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in 2015. The court previously declined to hear the case in 2016, on the grounds the landmark 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, did not explicitly say whether same-sex couples are entitled to spousal benefits. It later agreed to hear the case under pressure from the governor, lieutenant governor and Republican lawmakers. The case then bounced back to Harris County, where Family District Court Judge Sonya L. Heath in early 2019 ruled in favor of the city. Later that year, the plaintiffs appealed Heath’s decision to throw out the case. Of the pair’s decade-long campaign to overturn her administration’s policy, Parker said Tuesday she hoped the court’s decision would quash future challenges. “I didn’t do it to make a point,” Parker said of the policy. “I did it to be fair to all married city employees. Marriage should be marriage. Equal should be equal.”