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Cherokee
High Court Dismisses
Same-Sex
Marriage Suit
by
365Gay.com from the Web, January 4, 2006
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Tahlequah, Oklahoma -- The
Judicial Appeals Tribunal of the Cherokee Nation, the highest Cherokee court,
has rejected an attempt by several tribal council members to invalidate the
marriage of a Cherokee lesbian couple.
The Court held that the council members, who are the legislative branch of the
Cherokee Nation, had no standing to seek a court order invalidating the marriage
of Kathy Reynolds and Dawn McKinley because the council members could not show
that they were individually harmed or affected by the marriage.
The Court rejected the council members’ argument that permitting the marriage to
stand would injure “the reputation” of the Cherokee Nation.
"We are relieved by the Court’s ruling,” Reynolds said on Wednesday. "Dawn
and I are private people, and we simply wish to live our lives in peace and
quiet, just as other married couples are permitted to do"
This is the second time the Court has rejected a challenge to the couple’s
marriage. In May 2004, Reynolds and McKinley applied for and were issued a
marriage certificate and the couple wed shortly after that.
Todd Hembree, who serves as counsel to the tribe's legislative body and opposes
same-sex marriage, went to court arguing the Cherokee Nation had no right to
recognize the marriage.
Last September the court ruled that Hembree had no standing to sue and could not
show that he suffered any harm by the couple's attempt to be recognized as a
married couple.
In August, a group of elected tribal councilors filed a new court challenge.
Represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights the couple sought to have
the challenge dismissed.
"We are pleased that that Court protected the fundamental principles of the
Cherokee legal system, which prevents government officials from dragging private
citizens into court unless the officials have a direct personal stake in the
lawsuit,” said NCLR staff attorney Lena Ayoub, who represented the couple.
"The Court held that legislators must demonstrate a specific, individualized
harm in order to challenge the validity of a person’s marriage, regardless of
whether the marriage is between a different-sex or a same-sex couple.”
The ruling, however, does not automatically open the door for other same-sex
Cherokee couples to marry.
After McKinley and Reynolds wed last year, the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council
unanimously approved language that defined a union as between one man and one
woman.
Other same-sex couples seeing the right to marry would have to return to court
to challenge the ban. The Judicial Appeals ruling could be used as
precedent, however, to fight the ban, Ayoub told 365Gay.com.
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