Brenner v. Scott
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Brenner v. Scott Grimsley v. Scott |
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|---|---|
| U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida | |
| Date decided | August 21, 2014 |
| Citations | 999 F. Supp. 2d 1278 |
| Judge sitting | Robert L. Hinkle, U.S.D.J. |
| Case history | |
| Prior actions |
Northern District of Florida
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| Subsequent actions |
U.S. Eleventh Circuit
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| Case holding | |
| Florida's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional as they violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. | |
Northern District of Florida
U.S. Eleventh Circuit
In Brenner v. Scott and its companion case, Grimsley v. Scott, a U.S. district court found Florida's constitutional and statutory same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional. On August 21, 2014, the court issued a preliminary injunction that prevents that state from enforcing its bans and then stayed its injunction until stays are lifted in the three same-sex marriage cases then petitioning for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court–Bostic, Bishop, and Kitchen–and for 91 days thereafter. When the district court's preliminary injunction took effect on January 6, 2015, enforcement of Florida's bans on same-sex marriage ended.
The state defendants appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, where it was styled Brenner v. Armstrong.
Civil rights attorneys Bill Sheppard (Sheppard, White, Kachergus, & DeMaggio P.A) and Sam Jacobson (Bledsoe, Jacobson, Schmidt, Wright, & Wilkinson) filed Brenner v. Scott on behalf of a Leon County, Florida, same-sex couple seeking to have their Canadian marriage recognized by the state. Both plaintiffs in this case are state employees; James Brenner works for the state forest service and Charles Jones works in the state department of education. They complained of being unable to designate each other as a spouse in the state retirement benefits program because of Florida's nonrecognition of and refusal to license same-sex marriage. A second couple (Steven Schlairet & Ozzie Russ) were added to the Brenner suit on March 16, 2014. Steven is a retired hospital administrator, and Ozzie manages a local fast food restaurant. This couple sought to obtain a marriage license from the Washington County Court House, in Chipley, Florida. As a result of the Clerk of Courts' refusal to issue the marriage license to this couple, they joined the Brenner lawsuit.
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