TN Judge Refuses To Divorce Couple, Blaming SCOTUS Gay Marriage Ruling

The crowd celebrates outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday June 26, 2015, after the court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the US. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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A judge in Tennessee told a married couple seeking a divorce that he could not grant one for them, arguing that the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision left him unclear as to when a marriage ends.

“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,” Hamilton County Chancellor Jeffrey Atherton wrote when denying the divorce petition, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

He said that the Supreme Court needed to declare “when a marriage is no longer a marriage” for state courts to begin granting divorces, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.

The couple — Thomas Bumgardner, 65, and his wife, Pamela, 61 — had petitioned for divorce because their marriage was “irretrievably broken.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for dv01 dv01 says:

    He may not know when marriages now “end” but my guess is he’ll soon learn where the end of his authority is located.

  2. Avatar for caltg caltg says:

    Stupidity, thy name is Judge Jeffrey Atherton!

  3. Whaaaaa??? This judge is off his fucking rocker.

  4. “Look at me! Pay attention to me!”

    Next he will drape his robes over a couple of chairs and make a fort.

  5. Avatar for jsfox jsfox says:

    Me thinks this judge is doing a bit of whining instead adjudicating.

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